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Demographics of Macau
This article is about the demographic features of the population of Macau, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
Macau's population is 95% Chinese, primarily Cantonese and some Hakka, both from nearby Guangdong Province. The majority of the remainder are of Portuguese or mixed Chinese-Portuguese ancestry. Some Japanese, including descendants of Japanese Catholics who were expelled by shōguns, also live in Macau.
The official languages are Portuguese and Cantonese Chinese. The residents commonly (85.7%) speak Cantonese, Mandarin is spoken by 3.2% at home, about 40% are able to communicate in standard Mandarin. English and Portuguese are spoken as a first language by 1.5% and 0.6% respectively, while English is widely thought as a second language. The other popular topolect is Hokkien (Min Nan), spoken by a small percentage of the population. The creole Macanese language ("Patuá" or "Macaista Chapado") is almost extinct.
Estimates as of 1 July 2012:
Macao is the territory with the world's second highest life expectancy behind Hong Kong.
Source: "UN World Population Prospects"
Immigration is an essential component of the population. Results of the 2011 Population Census indicated that 326,376 (59.1% of the total population) were born outside Macau, an increase of 3.0 percentage points over the last ten years. Analysed by place of birth, 255,186 (46.2%) were born in Mainland China, down by 1.2 percentage points from 2001. 226,127 (40.9%) were born in Macau, 19,355 (3.5%) in Hong Kong and 1,835 (0.3%) in Portugal. There were more persons born in other countries or territories as the number of non-resident workers increased. Among them, 14,544 were born in the Philippines, 7,199 in Vietnam and 6,269 in Indonesia, altogether taking up 5.1% of the total population. 1,942 were born in Europe other than Portugal, 2,252 in Americas, 959 in Africa and 672 in Oceania. Analysed by age group, 85.2% of the youth population (aged 0–14) were born in Macau, and 62.9% of those aged 35 and above were born in Mainland China.
Analysed by nationality, 509,788 (92.3% of the total population) were of Chinese nationality, down by 2.9 percentage points from the 2001 Census; meanwhile, only 0.9% was of Portuguese nationality, a decrease of 1.1 percentage points. These figures can be misleading, because more than a 100,000 people in Macau are holders of a Portuguese passport, making them in effect Portuguese citizens. Over the last ten years, diversity of the various components of the population is enhanced as economic development has drawn people to invest, work or study in Macau; consequently, 37,695 (6.8%) were of other nationalities, up by 4.0 percentage points, with 2.7% being Filipinos.
Macau is a Chinese community and those of Chinese ethnicity totalled 510,383, an increase of 94,030 over the past ten years; however, its proportion to the total population decreased by 3.3 percentage points to 92.4%. Those of wholly or partly Portuguese ethnicity totalled 8,106, up slightly by 333 compared with 2001; its proportion to the total decreased by 0.3 percentage point to 1.5%.
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.
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Politics of Macau
Politics of Macau is a framework of political system, dominated by the People's Republic of China. It includes the legislature, the judiciary, the government, and a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government, led by the Chief Executive.
In accordance with Article 31 of the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, Macau has Special Administrative Region status, which provides constitutional guarantees for implementing the policy of "one country, two systems" and the constitutional basis for enacting the Basic Law of the Macau Special Administrative Region. Although geographically part of Guangdong Province, the Macau Special Administrative Region is directly under the authority of the central government of the People's Republic of China in Beijing, which controls the foreign affairs and defence of Macau but otherwise grants the region "a high degree of authority." The Basic Law took force upon handover of sovereignty from Portugal on 20 December 1999, and is to remain in effect for fifty years (that is, until 2049).
Macau's seven deputies to the National People's Congress (NPC) are selected by an electoral conference; they attended their first session of the NPC in Beijing in March 2000. Previously, in December 1999, the NPC Standing Committee approved the membership of the NPC Committee for the Basic Law of the Macau Special Administrative Region, chaired by NPC Vice Chairman Qiao Xiaoyang, for a five-year term. Half of the ten members are from Macau, the others from mainland China. Macau also has representation on the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
The Chief Executive of Macau is appointed by the People's Republic of China's central government after selection by an election committee, whose members are nominated by corporate bodies. The chief executive appears before a cabinet, the Executive Council, of between 7 and 11 members. The term of office of the chief executive is 5 years, and no individual may serve for more than two consecutive terms. The governor has strong policymaking and executive powers similar to those of a president. These powers are, however, limited from above by the central government in Beijing, to whom the governor reports directly, and from below (to a more limited extent) by the legislature.
In May 1999, Edmund Ho, a community leader and banker, was the first PRC-appointed chief executive of the Macau SAR, having replaced General de Rocha Viera on 20 December 1999. He was elected by the 200-member Chief Executive Selection Committee. Ho, born in Macau in 1955, was the first Chinese person to govern the region since the 1550s. Prior to 20 December 1999, Ho nominated major officials in the new government and carried out other transfer tasks. Ho was re-elected for a second term in 2004 and was succeeded by Fernando Chui in 2009.
The executive branch of the Macau government has the following cabinet departments, each headed by a secretary: Administration and Justice, Economic and Financial Affairs, Security, Social Affairs and Culture, and Transport and Public Works. There also are two commissions, Against Corruption and Audit, and a chief public prosecutor. Upon Macau's reversion to China, the executive offices were moved from Macau Government House temporarily to the Banco Tai Fung.
The Executive Council decides on matters of policy, the introduction of bills to the Legislative Assembly of Macau and the drafting of subordinate legislation. The Council consists of 11 members including the Chief Executive.
The cabinet consists of 5 secretariats of departments led by a Chief:
The legislative organ of the territory is the Legislative Assembly, a 33-member body comprising fourteen directly elected members, twelve indirectly elected members representing functional constituencies and seven members appointed by the chief executive. The Legislative Assembly is responsible for general lawmaking, including taxation, the passing of the budget and socioeconomic legislation. Terms are for four years, with annual sessions running from 15 October to 16 August. There are several standing committees in the assembly that perform the following functions: examination and issuance of reports and statements on projects and proposals of law, on resolutions and deliberations, and on proposals of alteration presented to the Legislative Assembly; examination of petitions submitted to the Legislative Assembly; voting on issues as approved in general by the Legislative Assembly General Meeting; and answering questions raised by the president or the General Meeting.
The last election was held in 2017 and the current Legislative Assembly is chaired by its president, businessman Ho Iat Seng (賀一誠), who is assisted by the vice president, Chui Sai Cheong (崔世昌), the elder brother of Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On.
The Court of Final Appeal is the court of last resort in the Macau Special Administrative Region.
The legal system is based largely on Portuguese law. The territory has its own independent judicial system, with a high court. Judges are selected by a committee and appointed by the chief executive. Foreign judges may serve on the courts. In July 1999 the chief executive appointed a seven-person committee to select judges for the SAR. Twenty-four judges were recommended by the committee and were then appointed by Mr. Ho. Included are three judges who serve on the Macau SAR's highest court, the Court of Final Appeal (CFA): 39-year-old Sam Hou Fai (who will be chief justice), 32-year-old Chu Kin, and the 46-year-old Viriato Manuel Pinhiero de Lima.
The central government in Beijing controls the foreign affairs of Macau. The Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China in the Macao Special Administrative Region opened its office in Macau on 20 December 1999. A central government agency, the commission interacts with the Macau government in matters of foreign policy. It also processes applications from foreign nations and international organisations wishing to establish consulates or representative offices in Macau. Macau is also authorised to handle some external affairs on its own. These affairs include economic and cultural relations and agreements it concludes with states, regions, and international organisations. In such matters, Macau functions under the name "Macao, China." Macau displays the flag and national emblem of the People's Republic of China but is also authorised to display its own regional flag and emblem. Taiwanese organisations in Macau are allowed to continue operations and are required to abide by the Basic Law.
CCC, ESCAP (associate), International Maritime Organization (associate), Interpol (subbureau), UNESCO (associate), WMO, WToO (associate), WTrO
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Economy of Macau
The economy of Macau has remained one of the most open in the world since its handover to China in 1999. Apparel exports and gambling-related tourism are mainstays of the economy. Since Macau has little arable land and few natural resources, it depends on mainland China for most of its food, fresh water, and energy imports. Japan and Hong Kong are the main suppliers of raw materials and capital goods. Although Macau was hit hard by the 1997–98 Asian financial crisis and the global downturn in 2001, its economy grew approximately 13.1% annually on average between 2001 and 2006. Macau is a full Member of the World Trade Organization. Public Security has greatly improved after handover to People's Republic of China. With the tax revenue from the profitable gambling industry, the Macau government is able to introduce the social welfare program of 15 years of free education to all Macau citizens. In 2015, Macau's economy saw a sharp decrease (-26.4% year-on-year in Q2 2015) due to the reduced spending by visitors from Mainland China since Anti-corruption campaign under Xi Jinping.
During the first three quarters of 2007, Macau registered year-on-year GDP increases of 31.4%. A rapid rise in the number of mainland visitors due to China's easing of travel restrictions, increased public works expenditures, and significant investment inflows associated with the liberalisation of Macau's gaming industry drove the five-year recovery. The budget also returned to surplus after 2002 because of the surge in visitors from China and a hike in taxes on gambling profits, which generated about 70% of government revenue. The Hong Kong dollar is itself a reserve currency for the Macanese pataca, which is pegged at the official rate of around 1 Hong Kong dollar to 1.03 Macanese pataca.
Macau was a barren fishing village with a population of about 400 before the Portuguese arrived in the 16th century, during the Age of Discovery. In 1535, the Portuguese traders obtained by bribing the right to anchor ships in Macau harbours and engage in trading activities. Portuguese and Chinese merchants flocked to Macau, and it quickly became an important regional trading center in Portugal's lucrative trade along three major routes: Macau-Malacca-Goa-Lisbon, Guangzhou-Macau-Nagasaki and Macau-Manila-Mexico. However, with the decline of Portugal as a world power in the 17th and 18th centuries, the trading routes were challenged by other powers such as the Dutch and the British. After China ceded Hong Kong to the British in 1842, Macau's position as a major regional trading center declined further still because larger ships were drawn to the deep water port of Victoria Harbour. In an attempt to reverse the decline, from 1848 to the early 1870s Macau engaged in the infamous trade of coolies (slave labourers) as a transit port, shipping locals from southern China to Cuba, Peru, and other South American ports to work on plantations or in mines.
Fishing re-emerged as a dominant economic activity in Macau as it lost its position as a regional trading center. In the early 1920s, over 70% of Macau's 84,000 residents were engaged in fishing. Meanwhile, some other businesses started to develop, such as matches, firecrackers, incense and fishing-boat building. But the most notable was the gambling business. Gambling was first legalised in the 19th century in an attempt to generate revenues for the government. The first casino monopoly concession was granted to the Tai Xing Company in 1937. The company was, however, too conservative to fully exploit the economic potential of gambling. The industry saw a major breakthrough in 1962 when the government granted the "Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau" (STDM), a syndicate jointly formed by Hong Kong and Macau businessmen, the monopoly rights to all forms of gambling. The STDM introduced western-style games and modernised the marine transport between Macau and Hong Kong, bringing millions of gamblers from Hong Kong every year.
In the 1970s Macau also saw a rapid development in its manufacturing sector. With Macau's low-cost operating environment and its surplus quotas under the Multi Fiber Arrangement (MFA), many Hong Kong industrialists established textile and garment manufacturing bases in Macau. At its golden age in the 1980s, the manufacturing sector accounted for about 40% of Macau's GDP; textiles and garments accounted for about 90% of Macau's total visible exports. However, the manufacturing sector has experienced a gradual decline since the early 1990s due to phasing out of the MFA quota system and the rising labour costs relative to mainland China and Southeast Asian countries.
The work force in Macau is mainly composed of manufacturing; construction; wholesale and retail; hotels and restaurants; financial services, real estate, and other business activities; public administration and other personal and social services, including gaming; transport, storage and communications. Due to the double-digit economic growth in recent years, the unemployment rate dropped from the record high 6.8% in 2000 to 3.1% in Qtr 3, 2007.
With the opening of several casino resorts and other major constructions underway, it is reported that many sectors, especially the construction sector, experience a shortage of labour. The government responds by importing labour from other neighbouring regions, including mainland China, Hong Kong, the Philippines and India. Currently the number of imported labours stands at a record high of 75,391 (Q2 2007), representing more than a quarter of the labour force in Macau. Some local workers complain about the lack of jobs due to the influx of cheap imported labour. Some also claim that the problem of illegal labour is severe. Another concern is the widening of income inequality in the region: Macau's Gini coefficient, a popular measure of income inequality where a low value indicates a more equal income distribution, rises from 0.43 in 1998 to 0.48 in 2006. It is higher than those of other neighbouring regions, such as mainland China (0.447), South Korea (0.316) and Singapore (0.425).
Macau adopts the so-called currency board system under which the legal tender, pataca (MOP), is 100 percent backed by foreign exchange reserves, the Hong Kong dollar (HKD). Moreover, the currency board, Monetary Authority of Macao (AMCM), has a statutory obligation to issue and redeem pataca on demand against Hong Kong dollar at a fixed exchange rate and without limit. The pataca is pegged to the Hong Kong dollar at a rate of 1.03 MOP per HKD, which is maintained by the AMCM.
Each pataca divides into 100 avos. Coins are issued in 10, 20, and 50 avos and 1, 2, 5, and 10 patacas (2 and 10 patacas coins are rarely used in the territory); notes are in 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, and 1000 pataca denominations. Hong Kong dollar is freely used and accounts for more than half of the total deposits in Macau's banks. In addition, Chinese yuan is also widely accepted. Two banks issue currency: the Banco Nacional Ultramarino and the Bank of China (starting from October 1995).
The historical exchange rates between the pataca and the US dollar (USD) are given below.
In 2011, Macau's free-market economy produced total exports of US$1.119 billion (MOP 8.94 billion) and consisted mainly of clothing, textiles, footwear, toys, electronics, machinery and parts. Total imports for the same period reached US$8.926 billion (MOP 71.32 billion), and consisted mostly of raw materials and semi-manufactured goods, consumer goods (foodstuffs, beverages, tobacco), capital goods, mineral fuels and oils. Macau's primary export partner in 2011 was Hong Kong (44.6%). Other exports go to Mainland China (15.9%) and United States (7.9%). Macau import partners are Mainland China (30.4%), Hong Kong (12%), France (10.4%), Switzerland (7.5%), Italy (7.5%), Japan (6.2%), and United States (6.1%).
In the second half of the 20th century, Macau's economy was diversified with the development of light industry, the influx of migrants from mainland China to serve as a labour force, and increased tourism. Portugal's efforts to develop economic and cultural links between Macau and Brazil and Portuguese holdings in Africa, however, were not successful. Economic ties to the European Union and Taiwan are considered important aspects of Macau's economic role as part of the People's Republic of China. Direct access to the neighbouring Zhuhai Special Economic Zone facilitates trade with mainland China. As a special administrative region, Macau functions as a free port and as a separate customs territory.
Tourism is the backbone of Macau's economy, and much of it geared towards gambling, which was legalised in the 19th century and has since been the linchpin of the economy and an important source of revenue for the government. From 1962, the gambling industry operated under a government-issued monopoly licence by Stanley Ho's Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau (STDM), which replaced the Tai Heng Entertainment Corporation that had held a gaming monopoly for the previous 24 years. In the 1990s Macau had nine casinos and gambling reportedly represented 20 to 25% of Macau's GDP. The monopoly ended in 2001 when the gaming industry was liberalised and several casino operators from Las Vegas entered the market. These new operators include Las Vegas Sands, which opened Sands Macao , the largest casino in the world as measured by total number of table games, in 2004 and Venetian Macau in 2007; Wynn Resorts, which opened Wynn Macau in 2006; and MGM Mirage, which opened MGM Grand Macau in 2007.
In addition, other casino owners, including Australian Crown Casino and Hong Kong Galaxy Entertainment Group have also opened several hotel casinos in Macau. As a result of the surge in number of casinos and construction from other new casino entrants, Macau's economy has been growing rapidly in recent years. Gaming revenues from Macau's casinos are now greater than those of Las Vegas Strip, making Macau the highest-volume gambling center in the world. Numerous other hotel casinos, including Galaxy Cotai Megaresort and Ponte 16, are also to be opened in near future.
Due to the opening of the new hotel casinos and China's easing of travel restrictions, there has been a rapid rise in the number of mainland visitors. From 9.1 million visitors in 2000, arrivals to Macau has grown to 18.7 million visitors in 2005 and 22 million visitors in 2006, with over 50% of the arrivals coming from mainland China and another 30% from Hong Kong. Macau is expected to receive between 24 and 25 million visitors in 2007. Macau also received the Future Award 2007, voted by 26,000 German travel trade members of GoAsia, for being regarded as the most promising future tourism destination in Asia. Macau is currently rated as one of the world's top tourism destinations by the World Tourism Organization.
Macau's manufacturing industries emerged in the first few decades of the 20th century, which mainly consisted of junk building, factories for matches, firecrackers and incense. Modern industries, however, did not take off until the 1970s when the textiles and garments industry was rising rapidly, while other light industries such as plastics, electronics, toys, and artificial flowers also experienced respectable growth. Textiles and garments further increased its dominance in the manufacturing sector towards the end of the 1980s.
Much of Macau's textile industry has moved to the mainland as the Multi-Fiber Agreement is phased out. The territory has relied more on gambling and tourism-related services to generate growth.
Macau is an offshore financial centre, a tax haven, and a free port with no foreign exchange control regimes.
The offshore finance business is regulated and supervised by the Monetary Authority of Macao, while the regulation and supervision of the offshore non-finance business is mainly controlled by the Macau Trade and Investment Promotion Institute. In 2007, Moody's Investors Service upgraded Macau's foreign and local currency government issuer ratings to 'Aa3' from 'A1', citing its government's solid finances as a large net creditor. The rating agency also upgraded Macau's foreign currency bank deposit ceiling to 'Aa3' from 'A1'.
There are twenty other licensed banks, sixteen of which are foreign. Macau has five of the top 500 commercial banks in Asia, including Banco Tai Fung and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
In 2014, the construction sectors in Macau engaged 45,368 people. The value of construction was MOP78.15 billion, in which MOP66.88 billion belong to the private sectors. The intermediate consumption was MOP61.03 billion and labor cost was MOP11.35 billion.
Air Macau, the island's airline, is headquartered in Macau.
Macau has reportedly the highest "media density" in the world - nine Chinese-language dailies, three Portuguese-language dailies, two English-language dailies and about half a dozen Chinese-language weeklies and one Portuguese-language weekly. About two dozen newspapers from Hong Kong, mainland China, Taiwan and the Philippines are shipped to Macau every early morning.
The large role of gaming and tourism underscores a degree of risk for Macau's economy. Because the economy is so reliant on tourism and gambling for its well-being, if the flow of tourists slows, it could come as a shock to the small market. The push for diversification came in the closing years of Portuguese administration, under Governor General Vasco Rocha Vieira, and has continued to the present, under Chief Executive Edmund Ho. The government is seeking foreign investment as a means of economic diversification as well. Much of the foreign investment into Macau, however, has gone into the gaming sector after the end of the monopoly in 2001. Otherwise, foreign companies have entered into the mobile phone market and internet services after telecommunications market liberalisation in 2001.
Prior to the 1930s Macau had a Laissez-Faire type of welfare provision. Publicly funded schools available were taught in Portuguese. The first welfare program was created in the late 1930s – it was called the Public Charity Society. The main objective of the organization is to provide for the poor and orphans. The development of a welfare state was gradual and primitive. In 1947, a number of reforms were made. Most notably, the social relief card was established which was only given to those in need. In the 60s the Public Relief Society became the Public Relief Branch. Services broaden to cover other areas such as disaster reliefs. This is an important addition because Macau have high risks of frequent typhoons. In addition, many facilities were also built, including rehabilitation centers and center for blind and deaf assistance. Throughout the 60s and 70s, housing was provided to the poor, disabled and elderly. Financial aid for health care and education is also provided to poor. During this period the government have also started subsidizing private schools. Another restructuring of the system happened in 1980. The Department of Social Welfare was officially established. Further adjustments were made in the late 80s that separated the department into three branches, including the Macao Governor, Social Welfare Committee and the Department for Social Welfare. It established four principles "equality, efficiency, mutual assistance and participation". Four offices were also set up in Santo António e São Lázaro, São Lourenço e Sé, Nossa Senhora de Fátima, and Ilias. The purpose of these offices is to make it more convenient for people to make a visit and for the workers to also get closer to the locals in their region. In the 90s, an additional office was set up in llhas Verde due to high demand in the Northern region. The department also became increasingly involved in familial issues by offering counseling.
The Social Welfare Bureau – which remained to this day - was established after the handover to China in 1999. Initially Macau faced challenges from a weak economy and high unemployment rate but in 2002, gaming was legalized and increased the government revenue. Due to the rapid economic growth driven by the gambling industry, foreign investments and tourism, the government is now able to provide more public services. Macau's social welfare programs have grown to be comparable to the most developed countries in the world. Free healthcare is universal and offered in public hospitals but private services is also subsidized by 30%, for pregnant women, students, civil servants and people 65 and above, it is completely subsidized. The government extend benefits for many of these citizens. Improvements in the rise of employment and income is also linked to higher satisfaction with quality of life. The government provide 15 years of free education, social insurance and social assistance to all citizens. Similar to a lot of East Asian countries, the social welfare model in Macau does not fit neatly in "the three worlds of welfare capitalism". It has been argued that it functions more like a regulatory welfare regime.
Nevertheless, Macau's public sector appears to be quite small. Workers in the public sector is one of the highest paid occupation due to constitutional law that was set during the handover. Therefore, as a result the government often offer shot-term or part-time contracts to make it more affordable although contracts usually get renew. It is reported that many workers in the police force have left to work in casinos for better pay. Economic growth also brings inequality, competition is getting higher as more foreigner and mainland workers are overtaking local poor in skills. This evidently produced an increase in citizen participation in elections and protests. The focus on the gambling and tourism industry also come at the expense of other sectors. As of 2009, 44.9% of labor work in the tourist industry. It is reported in 2006 that 44 times the population of Macau visited the city that year. Furthermore, all profitable big business like hotels and casinos are owned by foreign investors, which comes at the expense of local family businesses. This had led to a violent protest on Labor Day in 2007. No such civil unrest has ever been record in Macau history before or after the handover but it caught real attention because the city had a GDP growth of 17% the year prior.
Electricity – production: 1.893 billion kWh (2004)
"fossil fuel:" 100%
"hydro:" 0%
"nuclear:" 0%
"other:" 0% (1998)
Electricity – consumption: 1.899 billion kWh (2004)
Electricity – exports: 0 kWh (2004)
Electricity – imports: 153.3 million kWh (2004)
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Telecommunications in Macau
With Macau's population (about 500,000) and its small market, only a few media options are available for the local people. Because radio signals, newspapers and magazines from Hong Kong are available in Macau, the local media are always a minority group in terms of sales and number of viewers.
There are eighteen newspapers (twelve in Chinese, four in Portuguese and two in English). "O Mun Yat Po" or "Macau Daily News") is reportedly owned by the Communist Party of China and has the largest circulation (4,000). Additionally, Chinese-language newspapers from Hong Kong are popular.
Macau has eight Chinese-language, three Portuguese-language and two English-language dailies. The "Macau Daily Times" is Macau's only English-language newspaper edited seven days a week. "Macau Post Daily" is published from Monday to Friday. It is owned by a local publishing company, Everbright Co. Ltd., which is locally owned.
There are 250,000 radios; two twenty-hour FM radio stations, one Portuguese, one Chinese; and four AM stations. Hong Kong radio stations also are popular in Macau.
There are 70,300 television sets (1997 estimate); two television channels: one Portuguese and one Chinese. Hong Kong television networks TVB and ATV can be received and are widely watched by Macau residents.
Macau also owns its very own television station called TDM. And it has 6 channels (4 of the 6 channels are the digital thematic channels).
The number of telephone lines has been increasing since the mid-1990s. In 1997 there were 222,456 telephones; by 1999, 300,066 lines were in use. In 1999 there were 686 telephone lines per 1,000 people. Cellular-telephone-use statistics were not available. International access is via Hong Kong and Mainland China and via Intelsat (Indian Ocean). Alcatel-Lucent was granted a contract in February 2007 to collocate a CDMA2000 1xEV-DO (Revision A) high-speed wireless network in Macau for China Unicom. Following the completion of the upgrades in related software and hardware, China Unicom will be equipped with the facilities needed to provide high-speed mobile data services for users in Macau, including broadcasting and video telephony.
Telephone system: fairly modern communication facilities maintained for domestic and international services
GSM mobile phone networks for consumers in Macau were set to be decommissioned in July 2012. Networks will only be left in place for visitors to roam onto. Macau will be the first region in the world to phase out networks using the GSM standard.
Internet Service Providers (ISPs): CTM (Companhia de Telecomunicações de Macau S.A.R.L.)
Country code (Top level domain): .mo
The Macao Telecommunications Company (CTM) in 2000 launched the first broadband Internet access in the territory, on a network built by Cisco Systems.
MTel Telecommunications also provides fixed line services as well as broadband and is CTM's main competitor, though much smaller market share.
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Transport in Macau
Transport in Macau includes road, sea, rail and air transport. Road transport is the primary mode of transport within Macau, although a new rail system opened in December 2019 serving the areas of Taipa and Cotai The main forms of public transport are buses and taxis.
Modes of transport out of Macau include ferries to Hong Kong and mainland China from two ferry terminals, as well as helicopter service to Hong Kong. International flights are available from Macau International Airport.
Buses and taxis are the major modes of public transport in Macau. Bus services are frequent and inexpensive, linking the Macau peninsula, Taipa, Cotai and Coloane. Transmac and TCM, are the only operators of Macau's bus services. Nova Era (), which took over the operations of Reolian, merged with TCM on 1 August, 2018. Most hotels (four-starred or above) and gaming venues operate their own fleet of shuttle bus service between the Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Terminal, Taipa Ferry Terminal or Portas do Cerco (Macau's border to mainland China) and their premises.
Taxis are plentiful near the airport/Taipa ferry terminal, the Hong Kong-Macau and Taipa ferry terminal, and major gaming venues/hotels in the city though it is harder to get one during rush hours on the streets. Most of Macau's taxis have a black body with cream color top livery. Radio taxis are available for the black cabs.
In order to enhance the quality of taxi services, such as eliminate the language barrier between taxi drivers and passengers, the Tourist Office has provided most taxis with a destination guide which includes the names of the most requested destinations in Chinese, Portuguese and English.
The trishaw, a hybrid of the tricycle and the rickshaw, is a unique mode of transport in Macau, though it is mainly for sightseeing purposes but they were a type of mainly used transportation system before the 1970s because of their cheap price. They can easily be found next to Hotel Lisboa and the Macau ferry terminal waiting for passengers.
There is one railway line open in Macau called the Macau Light Rail Transit system. Phase 1 of the Taipa line opened for operations in December 2019. Similar to the Singapore Light Rapid Transit system, the tracks will be a mix of elevated guideways and tunnels, ensuring a dedicated right-of-way separated from road traffic. When completed it will serve passengers on Macau Peninsula, Taipa island, the Cotai reclamation area, the Macau International Airport and the Hong Kong Zhuhai Macao Bridge.
Proposals have been put forward to link Macau to the Chinese railway network by extending the Guangzhou Railway (or, possibly, Guangzhou-Zhuhai Intercity Mass Rapid Transit) to Cotai through Hengqin Island. However, no decisions have yet been made so far.
Zhuhai Railway Station of the Guangzhou–Zhuhai Intercity Railway terminates adjacent to the northern border entrance into Macau at Portas do Cerco.
The Macau Maritime Museum used to have two sailing vessels (which were based on the ancient "junk" form but were remodeled) serving for touring trips between the inner and outer harbours. Along the trip, the crew would introduce the general lifestyle and customs of the local boat dwellers. However, due to the land reclamation works in the harbour and the maintenance of the boats, all trips have been suspended.
Over 150 sea-crossing services are scheduled daily between Macau and Hong Kong, and the Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal serves as the major terminal for Macau's passenger traffic by sea. The route is served by high speed catamarans (with passenger capacity of about 400) and jetfoils (with passenger capacity of about 260) and the journey takes approximately one hour. There are also daily scheduled ferry services between Macau and Shenzhen. At present the services are operated by TurboJET from Sheung Wan, Tsim Sha Tsui and Hong Kong International Airport. Cotai Water Jet also operates services between Taipa Ferry Terminal and the Sheung Wan, Tsim Sha Tsui and Hong Kong International Airport. Apart from the sea routes there are also regular scheduled helicopter services between Hong Kong and Macau, which are operated by Sky Shuttle. The trip takes approximately 20 minutes.
A sea-crossing service has been launched by TurboJET which travels between the Hong Kong International Airport and Macau. This differs from the above Macau-Hong Kong route since travelers who arrive in Hong Kong by air do not have to go through Hong Kong immigration's passport control and can board a direct ferry to Macau through a special transfer terminal within the airport. On the return trip, travelers can directly reach the Hong Kong International Airport by ferry (a dedicated check-in desk for the service is available at the Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Terminal) and arrive at the airport without going through Hong Kong immigration's passport control, though airline check-in has to be done for some airlines within the airport prior to boarding a plane. Later on, the Cotai Water Jet launched the same service linking Hong Kong Airport and Macau but mostly embarked at Taipa Ferry Terminal.
A new ferry terminal in Taipa, which is adjacent to the Macau International Airport, was opened in 2017 and some of the passenger traffic by sea will be diverted to the new facility. It is expected to act as a major hub for passenger transfer between the Hong Kong International Airport and the Macau International Airport.
From the Inner Harbour Ferry Terminal (Terminal Marítimo de Passageiros do Porto Interior), ferry services were available between Macau and Wanzai, Zhuhai until January, 2016 due to safety issues at the Wanzai Ferry Terminal. On 31 December 2019, the Macau government announced that the Wanzai Port will officially reopen on January 23 with an hourly immigration capacity of 3,840 crossings. To transport passengers between Macau and Zhuhai, the mainland ferry company Yuet Tung will arrange one ferry every 15 minutes, amounting to four ferries every hour. Each ferry can take a maximum of 280 passengers.
Air service in Macau began in the 1930s with Pan American Airways operating seaplanes from Macau to Hong Kong and lasted until 1941. In 1948 Cathay Pacific Airways commenced Hong Kong to Macau seaplane service under their subsidiary Macau Air Transport Company (MATCO). MATCO operated from the Outer Harbour Terminal along Avenida da Amizade to Kai Tak Airport in Hong Kong. The scheduled passenger service continued until 1961 when MATCO ceased operations.
The Macau International Airport, located at Taipa, serves as the terminal for Macau's international air traffic. It was inaugurated on 9 November 1995 and has since established a number of regular flights between Macau and major cities in Northeast and Southeast Asia, such as Bangkok, Beijing, Kaohsiung, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Osaka, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, and Taipei.
Passengers who would like to enter mainland China by land can use the "Two Customs, One Checkpoint" service (or the AIR-TO-LAND Flow Express Bus - Two Customs, One Checkpoint) provided by the Macau International Airport. Passengers can request the "Express Link" service at the check-in counter of their respective airlines. When arriving at the Macau International Airport, they can simply follow the "Express Link" signs and board the Air-to-Land transfer. Passengers do not have to go through Macau's immigration and customs checkpoint until they reach the border of mainland China.
Owing to its relatively low landing fees and the business opportunities brought by the booming gaming industry in Macau, the airport has attracted several of Asia's low-cost carriers such as AirAsia, Tigerair, Cebu Pacific, etc. to establish regular flights between Macau and several major cities in Southeast Asia. As a result, it has been gradually developing into a major hub for low-cost air travel within the region. Other traditional carriers, such as the local flag carrier Air Macau, the Taiwanese carrier EVA Air, and even carriers which operate similar routes from Hong Kong, are facing potential challenges from these newcomers.
Due to a lack of intercontinental flights from Macau, air passengers are also served by Hong Kong International Airport and Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport. Passengers can take ferries from the Outer Harbor and Taipa terminals to the Skypier in Hong Kong, or Fuyong Ferry Terminal in Shenzhen, without clearing customs or immigration at the other side. There is also a helicopter service to Shenzhen.
Macau has 321 kilometres of public roads, three bridges (viaducts) linking the Macau Peninsula and Taipa, and a tunnel through the Guia Hill linking the Horta e Costa area and the New Port Area (NAPE). The three bridges are (from east to west) the Friendship Bridge ("Ponte de Amizade"); the Macau-Taipa Bridge ("Ponte Governador Nobre de Carvalho"); and the Sai Van Bridge ("Ponte de Sai Van").
The Lotus Bridge links Cotai with Hengqin New Area of Zhuhai. Unlike mainland China, where traffic drives on the right, traffic in Macau and Hong Kong drives on the left, therefore a special design has been used to build this bridge to facilitate the change in driving directions.
Roads are generally narrow at the heart of the city and parked cars are always found on both sides of the road. Traffic congestion has been a major problem throughout the day owing to the lack of an efficient mass transit system and a relatively high car to population ratio.
There are four land cross-border checkpoints, Portas do Cerco, Parque Industrial Transfronteiriço, located at Ilha Verde, Cotai (Lotus) Checkpoint, and the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge Checkpoint for connection Mainland China. Except for Portas do Cerco, which operates from 06:00 to 01:00, the other checkpoints are in 24-hour operation.
The recent opening of the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge, opened in October 2018 has formed the first single road link between Hong Kong, Macau and the Chinese mainland at Zhuhai. This 50 km link consists of a series of bridges and tunnels crossing the Lingdingyang channel, that connects these three major cities on the Pearl River Delta in China.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19075
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Macedonia (region)
Macedonia () is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time; however, it came to be defined as the modern geographical region by the mid 19th century. Today the region is considered to include parts of six Balkan countries: Greece, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia, and Kosovo. It covers approximately and has a population of 4.76 million.
Its oldest known settlements date back approximately to 7,000 BC. From the middle of the 4th century BC, the Kingdom of Macedon became the dominant power on the Balkan Peninsula; since then Macedonia has had a diverse history.
Both proper nouns "Makedṓn" and "Makednós" are morphologically derived from the Ancient Greek adjective "makednós" meaning "tall, slim", and are related to the term Macedonia.
The definition of Macedonia has changed several times throughout history. Prior to its expansion under Alexander the Great, the ancient kingdom of Macedonia, to which the modern region owes its name, lay entirely within the central and western parts of the current Greek province of Macedonia and was consisted of 17 provinces/districts or eparchies (Ancient Greek: επαρχία).
Expansion of Kingdom of Macedon:
In the 2nd century, Macedonia covered approximately the area where it is considered to be today, but the northern regions of today Republic of North Macedonia were not identified as Macedonian lands. For reasons that are still unclear, over the next eleven centuries Macedonia's location was changed significantly. The Roman province of Macedonia consisted of what is today Northern and Central Greece, much of the geographical area of the Republic of North Macedonia and southeast Albania. Simply put, the Romans created a much larger administrative area under that name than the original ancient Macedon. In late Roman times, the provincial boundaries were reorganized to form the Diocese of Macedonia, consisting of most of modern mainland Greece right across the Aegean to include Crete, southern Albania, parts of south-west Bulgaria and most of Republic of North Macedonia.
In the Byzantine Empire, a province under the name of Macedonia was carved out of the original Theme of Thrace, which was well east of the Struma River. This "thema" variously included parts of Thrace and gave its name to the Macedonian dynasty. Hence, Byzantine documents of this era that mention Macedonia are most probably referring to the Macedonian thema. The region of Macedonia, on the other hand, which was ruled by the First Bulgarian Empire throughout the 9th and the 10th century, was incorporated into the Byzantine Empire in 1018 as the Themе of Bulgaria.
With the gradual conquest of southeastern Europe by the Ottomans in the late 14th century, the name of Macedonia disappeared as an administrative designation for several centuries and was rarely displayed on maps. The name was again revived to mean a distinct geographical region in the 19th century, defining the region bounded by Mount Olympus, the Pindus range, mounts Shar and Osogovo, the western Rhodopes, the lower course of the river Mesta (Greek Nestos) and the Aegean Sea, developing roughly the same borders that it has today.
During medieval and modern times, Macedonia has been known as a Balkan region inhabited by many ethnic groups. Today, as a frontier region where several very different cultures meet, Macedonia has an extremely diverse demographic profile. The current demographics of Macedonia include:
"[During its Panhellenic Meeting in September 1942, the KKE mentioned that it recognises the equality of the ethnic minorities in Greece] the KKE recognised that the Slavophone population was ethnic minority of Slavomacedonians. This was a term, which the inhabitants of the region accepted with relief. [Because] Slavomacedonians = Slavs+Macedonians. The first section of the term determined their origin and classified them in the great family of the Slav peoples."
The Greek Helsinki Monitor reports:
"... the term Slavomacedonian was introduced and was accepted by the community itself, which at the time had a much more widespread non-Greek Macedonian ethnic consciousness. Unfortunately, according to members of the community, this term was later used by the Greek authorities in a pejorative, discriminatory way; hence the reluctance if not hostility of modern-day Macedonians of Greece (i.e. people with a Macedonian national identity) to accept it." They form the majority of the population in the Republic of North Macedonia where according to the 2002 census, approximately 1,300,000 people declared themselves as Macedonians. In 1999, the Greek Helsinki Monitor estimated a significant minority of ethnic Macedonians ranging from 10,000 to 30,000 that exist among the Slavic-speakers of Greek Macedonia. There has not been a census in Greece on the question of mother tongue since 1951, when the census recorded 41,017 Slavic-speakers, mostly in the West Macedonia periphery of Greece. The linguistic classification of the Slavic dialects spoken by these people are nowadays typically classified as Macedonian, with the exception of some eastern dialects which can also be classified as Bulgarian, although the people themselves call their native language a variety of terms, including "makedonski", "makedoniski" ("Macedonian"), "slaviká" (, "Slavic"), "dópia" or "entópia" (, "local/indigenous [language]"), "balgàrtzki", "bògartski" ("Bulgarian") along with "naši" ("our own") and "stariski" ("old"). Most Slavic-speakers declare themselves as ethnic Greeks (Slavophone Greeks), although there are small groups espousing ethnic Macedonian and Bulgarian national identities, however some groups reject all these ethnic designations and prefer terms such as ""natives"" instead. The Macedonian minority in Albania are an officially recognised minority in Albania and are primarily concentrated around the Prespa region and Golo Brdo and are primarily Eastern Orthodox Christian with the exception of the later region where Macedonians are predominantly Muslim. In the 2011 Albanian census, 5,870 Albanian citizens declared themselves Macedonians. According to the latest Bulgarian census held in 2011, there are 561 people declaring themselves ethnic Macedonians in the Blagoevgrad Province of Bulgaria (Pirin Macedonia). The official number of ethnic Macedonians in Bulgaria is 1,654.
Most present-day inhabitants of the region are Eastern Orthodox Christians, principally of the Bulgarian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Macedonian Orthodox and Serbian Orthodox Churches. Notable Muslim minorities are present among the Albanian, Bulgarian (Pomaks), Macedonian (Torbeš), Bosniak, and Turkish populations.
During the period of classical antiquity, main religion in the region of Macedonia was the Ancient Greek religion. After the Roman conquest of Macedonia, the Ancient Roman religion was also introduced. Many ancient religious monuments, dedicated to Greek and Roman deities are preserved in this region. During the period of Early Christianity, ecclesiastical structure was established in the region of Macedonia, and the see of Thessaloniki became the metropolitan diocese of the Roman province of Macedonia. The archbishop of Thessaloniki also became the senior ecclesiastical primate of the entire Eastern Illyricum, and in 535 his jurisdiction was reduced to the administrative territory of the Diocese of Macedonia. Later it came under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.
During the Middle Ages and up to 1767, western and northern regions of Macedonia were under the jurisdiction of the Archbishopric of Ohrid. Northern fringes of the region (areas surrounding Skopje and Tetovo) had temporary jurisdiction under the Serbian Patriarchate of Peć. Both the Archbishopric of Ohrid and the Patriarchate of Peć became abolished and absorbed into the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in the middle of the 18th century. During the period of Ottoman rule, a partial islamization was also recorded. In spite of that, the Eastern Orthodox Christianity remained the dominant religion of local population.
During the 19th century, religious life in the region was strongly influenced by rising national movements. Several major ethnoreligious disputes arose in the region of Macedonia, main of them being schisms between the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and the newly created Bulgarian Exarchate (1872), and later between the Serbian Orthodox Church and the newly created Macedonian Orthodox Church (1967).
While Macedonia shows signs of human habitation as old as the paleolithic period (among which is the Petralona cave with the oldest European humanoid), the earliest known settlements, such as Nea Nikomedeia in Imathia (today's Greek Macedonia), date back 9,000 years. The houses at Nea Nikomedeia were constructed—as were most structures throughout the Neolithic in northern Greece—of wattle and daub on a timber frame. The cultural assemblage includes well-made pottery in simple shapes with occasional decoration in white on a red background, clay female figurines of the 'rod-headed' type known from Thessaly to the Danube Valley, stone axes and adzes, chert blades, and ornaments of stone including curious 'nose plugs' of uncertain function. The assemblage of associated objects differs from one house to the next, suggesting some degree of craft specialisation had already been established from the beginning of the site's history. The farming economy was based on the cultivation of cereal crops such as wheat and barley and pulses and on the herding of sheep and goats, with some cattle and pigs. Hunting played a relatively minor role in the economy. Surviving from 7000 to 5500 BCE, this Early Neolithic settlement was occupied for over a thousand years.
The Middle Neolithic period (c. 5500 to 4500 BCE) is at present best represented at Servia in the Haliacmon Valley in western Macedonia, where the typical red-on-cream pottery in the Sesklo style emphasises the settlement's southern orientation. Pottery of this date has been found at a number of sites in Central and Eastern Macedonia but so far none has been extensively excavated.
The Late Neolithic period (c. 4500 to 3500 BCE) is well represented by both excavated and unexcavated sites throughout the region (though in Eastern Macedonia levels of this period are still called Middle Neolithic according to the terminology used in the Balkans). Rapid changes in pottery styles, and the discovery of fragments of pottery showing trade with quite distant regions, indicate that society, economy and technology were all changing rapidly. Among the most important of these changes were the start of copper working, convincingly demonstrated by Renfrew to have been learnt from the cultural groups of Bulgaria and Roumania to the North. Principal excavated settlements of this period include Makryialos and Paliambela near the western shore of the Thermaic gulf, Thermi to the south of Thessaloniki and Sitagroi and Dikili Tas in the Drama plain. Some of these sites were densely occupied and formed large mounds (known to the local inhabitants of the region today as 'toumbas'). Others were much less densely occupied and spread for as much as a kilometer (Makryialos). Both types are found at the same time in the same districts and it is presumed that differences in social organisation are reflected by these differences in settlement organisation. Some communities were clearly concerned to protect themselves with different kinds of defensive arrangements: ditches at Makryialos and concentric walls at Paliambela. The best preserved buildings were discovered at Dikili Tas, where long timber-framed structures had been organised in rows and some had been decorated with bulls' skulls fastened to the outside of the walls and plastered over with clay.
Remarkable evidence for cult activity has been found at Promachonas-Topolnica, which straddles the Greek Bulgarian border to the north of Serres. Here a deep pit appeared to have been roofed to make a subterranean room; in it were successive layers of debris including large numbers of figurines, bulls' skulls, and pottery, including several rare and unusual shapes.
The farming economy of this period continued the practices established at the beginning of the Neolithic, although sheep and goats were less dominant among the animals than they had previously been, and the cultivation of vines ("Vitis vinifera") is well attested.
Only a few burials have been discovered from the whole of the Neolithic period in northern Greece and no clear pattern can be deduced. Grave offerings, however, seem to have been very limited.
In classical times, the region of Macedonia comprised parts of what at the time was known as Macedonia, Illyria and Thrace. Among others, in its lands were located the kingdoms of Paeonia, Dardania, Macedonia and Pelagonia, historical tribes like the Agrianes, and colonies of southern Greek city states. Prior to the Macedonian ascendancy, parts of southern Macedonia were populated by the Bryges, while western, (i. e., Upper) Macedonia, was inhabited by Macedonian and Illyrian tribes. Whilst numerous wars are later recorded between the Illyrian and Macedonian Kingdoms, the Bryges might have co-existed peacefully with the Macedonians. In the time of Classical Greece, Paionia, whose exact boundaries are obscure, originally included the whole Axius River valley and the surrounding areas, in what is now the northern part of the Greek region of Macedonia, most of the Republic of North Macedonia, and a small part of western Bulgaria. By 500 BCE, the ancient kingdom of Macedon was centered somewhere between the southern slopes of Lower Olympus and the lowest reach of the Haliakmon River. Since 512/511 BCE, the kingdom of Macedonia was subject to the Persians, but after the battle of Plataia it regained its independence. Under Philip II and Alexander the Great, the kingdom of Macedonia forcefully expanded, placing the whole of the region of Macedonia under their rule.
Alexander's conquests produced a lasting extension of Hellenistic culture and thought across the ancient Near East, but his empire broke up on his death. His generals divided the empire between them, founding their own states and dynasties. The kingdom of Macedon was taken by Cassander, who ruled it until his death in 297 BC. At the time, Macedonian control over the Thracoillyrian states of the region slowly waned, although the kingdom of Macedonia remained the most potent regional power. This period also saw several Celtic invasions into Macedonia. However, the Celts were each time successfully repelled by Cassander, and later Antigonus, leaving little overall influence on the region.
Macedonian sovereignty in the region was brought to an end at the hands of the rising power of Rome in the 2nd century BC. Philip V of Macedon took his kingdom to war against the Romans in two wars during his reign (221–179 BC). The First Macedonian War (215–205 BC) was fairly successful for the Macedonians but Philip was decisively defeated in the Second Macedonian War in (200–197 BC). Although he survived war with Rome, his successor Perseus of Macedon (reigned 179–168 BC) did not; having taken Macedon into the Third Macedonian War in (171–168 BC), he lost his kingdom when he was defeated. Macedonia was initially divided into four republics subject to Rome before finally being annexed in 146 BC as a Roman province. Around this time, vulgar Latin was introduced in the Balkans by Latin-speaking colonists and military personnel.
With the division of the Roman Empire into west and east in 298 AD, Macedonia came under the rule of Rome's Byzantine successors. The population of the entire region was, however, depleted by destructive invasions of various Gothic and Hun tribes c. 300 – 5th century AD. Despite this, other parts of the Byzantine empire continued to flourish, in particular some coastal cities such as Thessaloniki became important trade and cultural centres. Despite the empire's power, from the beginning of the 6th century the Byzantine dominions were subject to frequent raids by various Slavic tribes which, in the course of centuries, eventually resulted in drastic demographic and cultural changes in the Empire's Balkan provinces. Although traditional scholarship attributes these changes to large-scale colonizations by Slavic-speaking groups, it has been proposed that a generalized dissipation of Roman identity might have commenced in the 3rd century, especially among rural provincials who were crippled by harsh taxation and famines. Given this background, penetrations carried by successive waves of relatively small numbers of Slavic warriors and their families might have been capable of assimilating large numbers of indigenes into their cultural model, which was sometimes seen as a more attractive alternative. In this way and in the course of time, great parts of Macedonia came to be controlled by Slavic-speaking communities. Despite numerous attacks on Thessaloniki, the city held out, and Byzantine-Roman culture continued to flourish, although Slavic cultural influence steadily increased.
The Slavic settlements organized themselves along tribal and territorially based lines which were referred to by Byzantine Greek historians as "Sklaviniai". The Sklaviniai continued to intermittently assault the Byzantine Empire, either independently, or aided by Bulgar or Avar contingents. Around 680 AD a "Bulgar" group (which was largely composed of the descendants of former Roman Christians taken captive by the Avars), led by Khan Kuber (theorized to have belonged to the same clan as the Danubian Bulgarian khan Asparukh), settled in the Pelagonian plain, and launched campaigns to the region of Thessaloniki. When the Empire could spare imperial troops, it attempted to regain control of its lost Balkan territories. By the time of Constans II a significant number of the Slavs of Macedonia were captured and transferred to central Asia Minor where they were forced to recognize the authority of the Byzantine emperor and serve in his ranks. In the late 7th century, Justinian II again organized a massive expedition against the Sklaviniai and Bulgars of Macedonia. Launching from Constantinople, he subdued many Slavic tribes and established the "Theme of Thrace" in the hinterland of the Great City, and pushed on into Thessaloniki. However, on his return he was ambushed by the Slavo-Bulgars of Kuber, losing a great part of his army, booty, and subsequently his throne. Despite these temporary successes, rule in the region was far from stable since not all of the Sklaviniae were pacified, and those that were often rebelled. The emperors rather resorted to withdrawing their defensive line south along the Aegean coast, until the late 8th century. Although a new theme—that of "Macedonia"—was subsequently created, it did not correspond to today's geographic territory, but one farther east (centred on Adrianople), carved out of the already existing Thracian and Helladic themes.
There are no Byzantine records of "Sklaviniai" after 836/837 as they were absorbed into the expanding First Bulgarian Empire. Slavic influence in the region strengthened along with the rise of this state, which incorporated parts of the region to its domain in 837. In the early 860s Saints Cyril and Methodius, two Byzantine Greek brothers from Thessaloniki, created the first Slavic Glagolitic alphabet in which the Old Church Slavonic language was first transcribed, and are thus commonly referred to as the apostles of the Slavic world. Their cultural heritage was acquired and developed in medieval Bulgaria, where after 885 the region of Ohrid (present-day Republic of North Macedonia) became a significant ecclesiastical center with the nomination of the Saint Clement of Ohrid for "first archbishop in Bulgarian language" with residence in this region. In conjunction with another disciple of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Saint Naum, Clement created a flourishing Slavic cultural center around Ohrid, where pupils were taught theology in the Old Church Slavonic language and the Glagolitic and Cyrillic script at what is now called Ohrid Literary School. The Bulgarian-Byzantine boundary in the beginning of 10th century passed approximately north of Thessaloniki according to the inscription of Narash. According to the Byzantine author John Kaminiates, at that time the neighbouring settlements around Thessaloniki were inhabited by "Scythians" (Bulgarians) and the Slavic tribes of Drugubites and Sagudates, in addition to Greeks.
At the end of the 10th century, what is now the Republic of North Macedonia became the political and cultural heartland of the First Bulgarian Empire, after Byzantine emperors John I Tzimiskes conquered the eastern part of the Bulgarian state during the Rus'–Byzantine War of 970–971. The Bulgarian capital Preslav and the Bulgarian Tsar Boris II were captured, and with the deposition of the Bulgarian regalia in the Hagia Sophia, Bulgaria was officially annexed to Byzantium. A new capital was established at Ohrid, which also became the seat of the Bulgarian Patriarchate. A new dynasty, that of the Comitopuli under Tsar Samuil and his successors, continued resistance against the Byzantines for several more decades, before also succumbing in 1018. The western part of Bulgaria including Macedonia was incorporated into the Byzantine Empire as the province of Bulgaria (Theme of Bulgaria) and the Bulgarian Patriarchate was reduced in rank to an Archbishopric.
Intermittent Slavic uprisings continued to occur, often with the support of the Serbian princedoms to the north. Any temporary independence that might have been gained was usually crushed swiftly by the Byzantines. It was also marked by periods of war between the Normans and Byzantium. The Normans launched offensives from their lands acquired in southern Italy, and temporarily gained rule over small areas in the northwestern coast.
From the 12th century, parts of Macedonia were conquered by the Serbian kingdom of Raška. In the 13th century, following the Fourth Crusade, Macedonia was disputed among Byzantine Greeks, Latin crusaders of the short-lived Kingdom of Thessalonica, and the revived Bulgarian state. Most of southern Macedonia was secured by the Despotate of Epirus and then by the Empire of Nicaea, while the north was ruled by Bulgaria. After 1261 however, all of Macedonia returned to Byzantine rule, where it largely remained until the Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347. Taking advantage of this conflict, the Serb ruler Stefan Dushan expanded his realm and founded the Serbian Empire, which included all of Macedonia, northern and central Greece – excluding Thessaloniki, Athens and the Peloponnese. Dushan's empire however broke up shortly after his death in 1355. After his death local rulers in the regions of Macedonia were despot Jovan Uglješa in eastern Macedonia, and kings Vukašin Mrnjavčević and his son Marko Mrnjavčević in western regions of Macedonia.
Since the middle of the 14th century, the Ottoman threat was looming in the Balkans, as the Ottomans defeated the various Christian principalities, whether Serb, Bulgarian or Greek. After the Ottoman victory in the Battle of Maritsa in 1371, most of Macedonia accepted vassalage to the Ottomans and by the end of the 14th century the Ottoman Empire gradually annexed the region. The final Ottoman capture of Thessalonica (1430) was seen as the prelude to the fall of Constantinople itself. Macedonia remained a part of the Ottoman Empire for nearly 500 years, during which time it gained a substantial Turkish minority. Thessaloniki later become the home of a large Sephardi Jewish population following the expulsions of Jews after 1492 from Spain.
Over the centuries Macedonia had become a multicultural region. The historical references mention Greeks, Bulgarians, Turks, Albanians, Gypsies, Jews and Vlachs. It is often claimed that macédoine, the fruit or vegetable salad, was named after the area's very mixed population, as it could be witnessed at the end of the 19th century. From the Middle Ages to the early 20th century the Slavic-speaking population in Macedonia was identified mostly as Bulgarian.
During the period of Bulgarian National Revival many Bulgarians from these regions supported the struggle for creation of Bulgarian cultural educational and religious institutions, including Bulgarian Exarchate. Eventually, in the 20th century, 'Bulgarians' came to be understood as synonymous with 'Macedonian Slavs' and, eventually, 'ethnic Macedonians'. Krste Misirkov, a philologist and publicist, wrote his work "On the Macedonian Matters" (1903), for which he is heralded by Macedonians as one of the founders of the Macedonian nation.
After the revival of Greek, Serbian, and Bulgarian statehood in the 19th century, the Ottoman lands in Europe that became identified as "Macedonia", were contested by all three governments, leading to the creation in the 1890s and 1900s of rival armed groups who divided their efforts between fighting the Turks and one another. The most important of these was the Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committee (BMARC, SMARO from 1902) (an alternative version says that it consisted of the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (MRO, TMORO from 1902), under Gotse Delchev who in 1903 rebelled in the so-called Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising, fighting for an autonomous or independent Macedonian state (before 1902 only Bulgarians could join, but afterward, it invited "any Macedonian or Odrinian, irrespective of nationality, to join together"), and the Greek efforts from 1904 until 1908 (Greek Struggle for Macedonia). Diplomatic intervention by the European powers led to plans for an autonomous Macedonia under Ottoman rule.
The restricted borders of the modern Greek state at its inception in 1830 disappointed the inhabitants of northern Greece (Epirus and Macedonia). Addressing these concerns in 1844, the Greek Prime Minister Kolettis addressed the constitutional assembly in Athens that "the Kingdom of Greece is not Greece; it is only a part, the smallest and poorest, of Greece. The Greek is not only he who inhabits the kingdom, but also he who lives in Ioannina, or Thessaloniki, or Serres, or Odrin" . He mentions cities and islands that were under Ottoman possession as composing the Great Idea (Greek: Μεγάλη Ιδέα, "Megáli Idéa") which meant the reconstruction of the classical Greek world or the revival of the Byzantine Empire. The important idea here is that for Greece, Macedonia was a region with large Greek populations expecting annexation to the new Greek state.
The 1878 Congress of Berlin changed the Balkan map again. The treaty restored Macedonia and Thrace to the Ottoman Empire. Serbia, Romania and Montenegro were granted full independence, and some territorial expansion at the expense of the Ottoman Empire. Russia would maintain military advisors in Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia until May 1879. Austria-Hungary was permitted to occupy Bosnia, Herzegovina and the Sanjak of Novi Pazar. The Congress of Berlin also forced Bulgaria, newly given autonomy by the 1878 Treaty of San Stefano, to return over half of its newly gained territory to the Ottoman Empire. This included Macedonia, a large part of which was given to Bulgaria, due to Russian pressure and the presence of significant numbers of Bulgarians and adherents to the Bulgarian Exarchate. The territorial losses dissatisfied Bulgaria; this fuelled the ambitions of many Bulgarian politicians for the following seventy years, who wanted to review the treaty – by peaceful or military means and to reunite all lands which they claimed had a Bulgarian majority. Besides, Serbia was now interested in the Macedonian lands, until then only Greece was Bulgaria's main contender, which after the addition of Thessaly to Greece in (1881) was bordering Macedonia. Thus, the Berlin Congress renewed the struggle for Turkey in Europe, including the so-called Macedonia region, rather than setting up a permanent regime. In the following years, all of the neighboring states struggled over Turkey in Europe; they were only kept at bay by their own restraints, the Ottoman Army and the territorial ambitions of the Great Powers in the region.
Serbian policy had a distinct anti-Bulgarian flavor, attempting to prevent the Bulgarian influencing the inhabitants of Macedonia. On the other hand, Bulgaria was using the power of its religious institutions (Bulgarian Exarchate established in 1870) to promote its language and make more people identify with Bulgaria. Greece, in addition, was in an advantageous position for protecting its interests through the influence of Patriarchate of Constantinople which traditionally sponsored Greek-language and Greek-culture schools also in villages with few Greeks. This put the Patriarchate in dispute with the Exarchate, which established schools with Bulgarian education. Indeed, belonging to one or another institution could define a person's national identity. Simply, if a person supported the Patriarchate they were regarded as Greek, whereas if they supported the Exarchate they were regarded as Bulgarian. Locally, however, villagers were not always able to express freely their association with one or the other institution as there were numerous armed groups trying to defend and/or expand the territory of each. Some were locally recruited and self-organized while others were sent and armed by the protecting states.
The aim of the adversaries, however, was not primarily to extend their influence over Macedonia but merely to prevent Macedonia succumbing to the influence of the other. This often violent attempt to persuade the people that they belonged to one ethnic group or another pushed some people to reject both. The severe pressure on the peaceful peasants of Macedonia worked against the plans of the Serbians and Bulgarians to make them adopt their ethnic idea and eventually a social divide became apparent. The British Ambassador in Belgrade in 1927 said: "At present the unfortunate Macedonian peasant is between the hammer and the anvil. One day 'comitadjis' come to his house and demand under threat lodging, food and money and the next day the gendarm hales him off to prison for having given them; the Macedonian is really a peaceable, fairly industrious agriculturist and if the (Serbian) government give him adequate protection, education, freedom from malaria and decent communications, there seems no reason why he should not become just as Serbian in sentiment as he was Bulgarian 10 years ago". As a result of this game of tug-of-war, the development of a distinct Macedonian national identity was impeded and delayed. Moreover, when the imperialistic plans of the surrounding states made possible the division of Macedonia, some Macedonian intellectuals such as Misirkov mentioned the necessity of creating a Macedonian national identity which would distinguish the Macedonian Slavs from Bulgarians, Serbians or Greeks.
Baptizing Macedonian Slavs as Serbian or Bulgarian aimed therefore to justify these countries' territorial claims over Macedonia. The Greek side, with the assistance of the Patriarchate that was responsible for the schools, could more easily maintain control, because they were spreading Greek identity. For the very same reason the Bulgarians, when preparing the Exarchate's government (1871) included Macedonians in the assembly as "brothers" to prevent any ethnic diversification. On the other hand, the Serbs, unable to establish Serbian-speaking schools, used propaganda. Their main concern was to prevent the Slavic-speaking Macedonians from acquiring Bulgarian identity through concentrating on the myth of the ancient origins of the Macedonians and simultaneously by the classification of Bulgarians as Tatars and not as Slavs, emphasizing their 'Macedonian' characteristics as an intermediate stage between Serbs and Bulgarians. To sum up the Serbian propaganda attempted to inspire the Macedonians with a separate ethnic identity to diminish the Bulgarian influence. This choice was the 'Macedonian ethnicity'. The Bulgarians never accepted an ethnic diversity from the Slav Macedonians, giving geographic meaning to the term. In 1893 they established the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (VMRO) aiming to confront the Serbian and Greek action in Macedonia. VMRO hoped to answer the Macedonian question through a revolutionary movement, and so they instigated the Ilinden Uprising (1903) to release some Ottoman territory. Bulgaria used this to internationalize the Macedonian question. Ilinden changed Greece's stance which decided to take Para-military action. In order to protect the Greek Macedonians and Greek interests, Greece sent officers to train guerrillas and organize militias (Macedonian Struggle), known as "makedonomahi" (Macedonian fighters), essentially to fight the Bulgarians. After that it was obvious that the Macedonian Question could be answered only with a war.
The rise of the Albanian and the Turkish nationalism after 1908, however, prompted Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria to bury their differences with regard to Macedonia and to form a joint coalition against the Ottoman Empire in 1912. Disregarding public opinion in Bulgaria, which was in support of the establishment of an autonomous Macedonian province under a Christian governor, the Bulgarian government entered a pre-war treaty with Serbia which divided the region into two parts. The part of Macedonia west and north of the line of partition was contested by both Serbia and Bulgaria and was subject to the arbitration of the Russian Tsar after the war. Serbia formally renounced any claims to the part of Macedonia south and east of the line, which was declared to be within the Bulgarian sphere of interest. The pre-treaty between Greece and Bulgaria, however, did not include any agreement on the division of the conquered territories – evidently both countries hoped to occupy as much territory as possible having their sights primarily set on Thessaloniki.
In the First Balkan War, Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro occupied almost all Ottoman-held territories in Europe. Bulgaria bore the brunt of the war fighting on the Thracian front against the main Ottoman forces. Both her war expenditures and casualties in the First Balkan War were higher than those of Serbia, Greece and Montenegro combined. Macedonia itself was occupied by Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian forces. The Ottoman Empire in the Treaty of London in May 1913 assigned the whole of Macedonia to the Balkan League, without, specifying the division of the region, to promote problems between the allies. Dissatisfied with the creation of an autonomous Albanian state, which denied her access to the Adriatic, Serbia asked for the suspension of the pre-war division treaty and demanded from Bulgaria greater territorial concessions in Macedonia. Later in May the same year, Greece and Serbia signed a secret treaty in Thessaloniki stipulating the division of Macedonia according to the existing lines of control. Both Serbia and Greece, as well as Bulgaria, started to prepare for a final war of partition.
In June 1913, Bulgarian Tsar Ferdinand, without consulting the government, and without any declaration of war, ordered Bulgarian troops to attack the Greek and Serbian troops in Macedonia, initiating the Second Balkan War. The Bulgarian army was in full retreat in all fronts. The Serbian army chose to stop its operations when achieved all its territorial goals and only then the Bulgarian army took a breath. During the last two days the Bulgarians managed to achieve a defensive victory against the advancing Greek army in the Kresna Gorge. However at the same time the Romanian army crossed the undefended northern border and easily advanced towards Sofia. Romania interfered in the war, in order to satisfy its territorial claims against Bulgaria. The Ottoman Empire also interfered, easily reassuming control of Eastern Thrace with Edirne. The Second Balkan War, also known as Inter-Ally War, left Bulgaria only with the Struma valley and a small part of Thrace with minor ports at the Aegean sea. Vardar Macedonia was incorporated into Serbia and thereafter referred to as South Serbia. Southern (Aegean) Macedonia was incorporated into Greece and thereafter was referred to as northern Greece. The region suffered heavily during the Second Balkan War. During its advance at the end of June, the Greek army set fire to the Bulgarian quarter of the town of Kilkis and over 160 villages around Kilkis and Serres driving some 50,000 refugees into Bulgaria proper. The Bulgarian army retaliated by burning the Greek quarter of Serres and by arming Muslims from the region of Drama which led to a massacre of Greek civilians.
In September 1915, the Greek government authorized the landing of the troops in Thessaloniki. In 1916 the pro-German King of Greece agreed with the Germans to allow military forces of the Central Powers to enter Greek Macedonia to attack Bulgarian forces in Thessaloniki. As a result, Bulgarian troops occupied the eastern part of Greek Macedonia, including the port of Kavala. The region was, however, restored to Greece following the victory of the Allies in 1918. After the destruction of the Greek Army in Asia Minor in 1922 Greece and Turkey exchanged most of Macedonia's Turkish minority and the Greek inhabitants of Thrace and Anatolia, as a result of which Aegean Macedonia experienced a large addition to its population and became overwhelmingly Greek in ethnic composition. Serbian-ruled Macedonia was incorporated into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) in 1918. Yugoslav Macedonia was subsequently subjected to an intense process of "Serbianization" during the 1920s and 1930s.
During World War II the boundaries of the region shifted yet again. When the German forces occupied the area, most of Yugoslav Macedonia and part of Aegean Macedonia were transferred for administration to Bulgaria. During the Bulgarian administration of Eastern Greek Macedonia, some 100,000 Bulgarian refugees from the region were resettled there and perhaps as many Greeks were deported or fled to other parts of Greece. Western Aegean Macedonia was occupied by Italy, with the western parts of Yugoslav Macedonia being annexed to Italian-occupied Albania. The remainder of Greek Macedonia (including all of the coast) was occupied by Nazi Germany. One of the worst episodes of the Holocaust happened here when 60,000 Jews from Thessaloniki were deported to extermination camps in occupied Poland. Only a few thousand survived.
Macedonia was liberated in 1944, when the Red Army's advance in the Balkan Peninsula forced the German forces to retreat. The pre-war borders were restored under U.S. and British pressure because the Bulgarian government was insisting to keep its military units on Greek soil. The Bulgarian Macedonia returned fairly rapidly to normality, but the Bulgarian patriots in Yugoslav Macedonia underwent a process of ethnic cleansing by the Belgrade authorities, and Greek Macedonia was ravaged by the Greek Civil War, which broke out in December 1944 and did not end until October 1949.
After this civil war, a large number of former ELAS fighters who took refuge in communist Bulgaria and Yugoslavia and described themselves as "ethnic Macedonians" were prohibited from reestablishing to their former estates by the Greek authorities. Most of them were accused in Greece for crimes committed during the period of the German occupation.
The imminent collapse of the Ottoman Empire was welcomed by the Balkan states, as it promised to restore their European territory. The Young Turk Revolution of 1908 proved a nationalistic movement thwarting the peoples' expectations of the empire's modernization and hastened the end of the Ottoman occupation of the Balkans. To this end, an alliance was struck among the Balkan states in Spring 1913. The First Balkan War, which lasted six weeks, commenced in August 1912, when Montenegro declared war on the Ottoman Empire, whose forces ultimately engaged four different wars in Thrace, Macedonia, Northern and Southern Albania and Kosovo. The Macedonian campaign was fought in atrocious conditions. The retreat of the Ottoman army from Macedonia succeeded the desperate effort of the Greek and Bulgarian forces to reach the city of Thessalonica, the "single prize of the first Balkan War" for whose status no prior agreements were done. In this case possession would be equal to acquisition. The Greek forces entered the city first liberating officially, a progress only positive for them. Glenny says: "for the Greeks it was a good war".
The first Balkan War managed to liberate Balkans from Turks and settled the major issues except Macedonia. In the spring 1913 the Serbs and Greeks begun the 'Serbianization' and the 'Hellenization' of the parts in Macedonia they already controlled, while Bulgarians faced some difficulties against the Jews and the Turkish populations. Moreover, the possession of Thessalonica was a living dream for the Bulgarians that were preparing for a new war. For this, the Bulgarian troops had a secret order in June 1913 to launch surprise attacks on the Serbs. Greece and Serbia signed a previous bilateral defensive agreement (May 1913). Consequently, Bulgaria decided to attack Greece and Serbia. After some initial gains the Bulgarians were forced to retreat back to Bulgaria proper and lose nearly all of the land they had conquered during the first war.
The Treaty of Bucharest (August 1913) took off most of the Bulgarian conquests of the previous years. A large part of Macedonia became southern Serbia, including the territory of what today is the Republic of North Macedonia, and southern Macedonia became northern Greece. Greece almost doubled its territory and population size and its northern frontiers remain today, more or less the same since the Balkan Wars. However, when Serbia acquired 'Vardarska Banovina' (the present-day Republic of North Macedonia), it launched having expansionist views aiming to descend to the Aegean, with Thessalonica as the highest ambition. However, Greece after the population exchange with Bulgaria, soon after its victory in the Balkan wars, managed to give national homogeneity in the Aegean and any remaining Slavic-speakers were absorbed.
Many volunteers from Macedonia joined Bulgarian army and participated in the battles against Bulgarian enemies in these wars—on the strength of the Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Volunteer Corps and other units.
After World War I Macedonian Campaign the status quo of Macedonia remained the same. The establishment of the 'Kingdom of Serbians, Croats and Slovenes' in 1918, which in 1929 was renamed 'Yugoslavia' (South Slavia) predicted no special regime for Skopje neither recognized any Macedonian national identity. In fact, the claims to Macedonian identity remained silent at a propaganda level because, eventually, North Macedonia had been a Serbian conquest.
The situation in Serbian Macedonia changed after the Communist Revolution in Russia (1918–1919). According to Sfetas, Comintern was handling Macedonia as a matter of tactics, depending on the political circumstances. In the early 1920s it supported the position for a single and independent Macedonia in a Balkan Soviet Democracy. Actually, the Soviets desired a common front of the Bulgarian communist agriculturists and the Bulgarian-Macedonian societies to destabilize the Balkan Peninsula. The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), under the protection of Comintern, promoted the idea of an independent Macedonia in a Federation of Balkan states, unifying all Macedonians. However, the possible participation of Bulgaria in a new war, on the Axis side, ended the Soviet support some years later.
Bulgaria joined the Axis powers in 1941, when German troops prepared to invade Greece from Romania reached the Bulgarian borders and demanded permission to pass through Bulgarian territory. Threatened by direct military confrontation, Tsar Boris III had no choice but to join the fascist block, which officially happened on 1 March 1941. There was little popular opposition, since the Soviet Union was in a non-aggression pact with Germany.
On 6 April 1941, despite having officially joined the Axis Powers, the Bulgarian government maintained a course of military passivity during the initial stages of the invasion of Yugoslavia and the Battle of Greece. As German, Italian, and Hungarian troops crushed Yugoslavia and Greece, the Bulgarians remained on the sidelines. The Yugoslav government surrendered on 17 April. The Greek government was to hold out until 30 April. On 20 April, the period of Bulgarian passivity ended. The Bulgarian Army entered the Aegean region. The goal was to gain an Aegean Sea outlet in Thrace and Eastern Macedonia and much of eastern Serbia. The so-called Vardar Banovina was divided between Bulgaria and Italians which occupied West Macedonia. The Bulgarian occupation of Macedonia was viewed as oppressive by the inhabitants of the region, further distancing any previous affiliations between Macedonian and Bulgarians.
During the German occupation of Greece (1941–1944) the Greek Communist Party-KKE was the main resistance factor with its military branch EAM-ELAS (National Liberation Front). Although many members of EAM were Slavic-speaking, they had either Bulgarian, Greek or distinct Macedonian conscience. To take advantage of the situation KKE established SNOF with the cooperation of the Yugoslav leader Tito, who was ambitious enough to make plans for Greek Macedonia. For this he established the Anti-Fascistic Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia (ASNOM) giving an actual liberating character to the whole region of Macedonia. Besides, KKE was very positive to the option of a greater Macedonia, including the Greek region, since it realized that a victory in the Greek Civil War was utopic. Later EAM and SNOF disagreed in issues of policy and they finally crashed and the latter was expelled from Greece (1944).
The end of the War did not bring peace to Greece and a strenuous civil war between the Government forces and EAM broke out with about 50,000 casualties for both sides. The defeat of the Communists in 1949 forced their Slav-speaking members to either leave Greece or fully adopt Greek language and surnames. The Slav minorities were discriminated against, and not even recognised as a minority. Since 1923 the only internationally recognized minority in Greece are the Muslims in Western Thrace.
Yugoslav Macedonia was the only region where Yugoslav communist leader Josip Broz Tito had not developed a Partisan movement because of the Bulgarian occupation of a large part of that area. To improve the situation, in 1943 the Communist Party of 'Macedonia' was established in Tetovo with the prospect that it would support the resistance against the Axis. In the meantime, the Bulgarians' violent repression led to loss of moral support from the civilian population. By the end of the war "a Macedonia national consciousness hardly existed beyond a general conviction, gained from bitter experience, that rule from Sofia was as unpalatable as that from Belgrade. But if there were no Macedonian nation there was a Communist Party of Macedonia, around which the People's Republic of Macedonia was built".
Tito thus separated Yugoslav Macedonia from Serbia after the war. It became a republic of the new federal Yugoslavia (as the Socialist Republic of Macedonia) in 1946, with its capital at Skopje. Tito also promoted the concept of a separate Macedonian nation, as a means of severing the ties of the Slav population of Yugoslav Macedonia with Bulgaria. Although the Macedonian language is very close to Bulgarian, the differences were deliberately emphasized and the region's historical figures were promoted as being uniquely Macedonian (rather than Serbian or Bulgarian). A separate Macedonian Orthodox Church was established, splitting off from the Serbian Orthodox Church, but it has not been recognized by any other Orthodox Church, including the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Communist Party sought to deter pro-Bulgarian sentiment, which was punished severely; convictions were still being handed down as late as 1991.
Tito had a number of reasons for doing this. First, as an ethnic Croat, he wanted to reduce Serbia's dominance in Yugoslavia; establishing a territory formerly considered Serbian as an equal to Serbia within Yugoslavia achieved this effect. Secondly, he wanted to sever the ties of the Macedonian Slav population with Bulgaria because recognition of that population as Bulgarian would have undermined the unity of the Yugoslav federation. Third of all, Tito sought to justify future Yugoslav claims towards the rest of Macedonia (Pirin and Aegean), in the name of the "liberation" of the region. The potential "Macedonian" state would remain as a constituent republic within Yugoslavia, and so Yugoslavia would manage to get access to the Aegean Sea.
Tito's designs on Macedonia were asserted as early as August 1944, when in a proclamation he claimed that his goal was to reunify "all parts of Macedonia, divided in 1912 and 1913 by Balkan imperialists". To this end, he opened negotiations with Bulgaria for a new federal state, which would also probably have included Albania, and supported the Greek Communists in the Greek Civil War. The idea of reunification of all of Macedonia under Communist rule was abandoned as late as 1949 when the Greek Communists lost and Tito fell out with the Soviet Union and pro-Soviet Bulgaria.
Across the border in Greece, Slavophones were seen as a potentially disloyal "fifth column" within the Greek state by both the US and Greece, and their existence as a minority was officially denied. Greeks were resettled in the region many of whom emigrated (especially to Australia) along with many Greek-speaking natives, because of the hard economic conditions after the Second World War and the Greek Civil War. Although there was some liberalization between 1959 and 1967, the Greek military dictatorship re-imposed harsh restrictions. The situation gradually eased after Greece's return to democracy, although even as recently as the 1990s Greece has been criticised by international human rights activists for "harassing" Macedonian Slav political activists, who, nonetheless, are free to maintain their own political party (Rainbow). Elsewhere in Greek Macedonia, economic development after the war was brisk and the area rapidly became the most prosperous part of the region. The coast was heavily developed for tourism, particularly on the Halkidiki peninsula.
Under Georgi Dimitrov, Soviet loyalist and head of the Comintern, Bulgaria initially accepted the existence of a distinctive Macedonian identity. It had been agreed that Pirin Macedonia would join Yugoslav Macedonia and for this reason the population declared itself "Macedonian" in the 1946 census. This caused resentment and many people were imprisoned or interned in rural areas outside Macedonia. After Tito's split from the Soviet bloc this position was abandoned and the existence of a Macedonian nation or language was denied.
Attempts of Macedonian historians after the 1940s to claim a number of prominent figures of the 19th century Bulgarian cultural revival and armed resistance movement as Macedonians has caused ever since a bitter resentment in Sofia. Bulgaria has repeatedly accused the Republic of North Macedonia of appropriating Bulgarian national heroes and symbols and of editing works of literature and historical documents so as to prove the existence of a Macedonian Slav consciousness before the 1940s. The publication in the Republic of North Macedonia of the folk song collections 'Bulgarian Folk Songs' by the Miladinov Brothers and 'Songs of the Macedonian Bulgarians' by Serbian archaeologist Verkovic under the "politically correct" titles 'Collection' and 'Macedonian Folk Songs' are some of the examples quoted by the Bulgarians. The issue has soured the relations of Bulgaria with former Yugoslavia and later with the Republic of North Macedonia for decades.
Kiro Gligorov, the president of Yugoslav Macedonia, sought to keep his republic outside the fray of the Yugoslav wars in the early 1990s. Yugoslav Macedonia's very existence had depended on the active support of the Yugoslav state and Communist Party. As both began to collapse, the Macedonian authorities allowed and encouraged a stronger assertion of Macedonian national identity than before. This included toleration of demands from Macedonian nationalists for the reunification of Macedonia. The Albanians in the Republic of Macedonia were unhappy about an erosion of their national rights in the face of a more assertive Macedonian nationalism. Some nationalist Serbs called for the republic's re-incorporation into Serbia, although in practice this was never a likely prospect, given Serbia's preoccupation with the wars in Bosnia and Croatia and the relatively small number of Serbs in the Republic of Macedonia compared to Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
As communism fell throughout Eastern Europe in the late 20th century, Yugoslav Macedonia followed its other federation partners and declared its independence from Yugoslavia in late 1991. In 1991, the (then Socialist) Republic of Macedonia held a referendum on independence which produced an overwhelming majority in favour of independence. The referendum was boycotted by the ethnic Albanians, although they did create ethnic political parties and actively contributed in the Macedonian government, parliament etc. The republic seceded peacefully from the Yugoslav federation, declaring its independence as the Socialist Republic of Macedonia. Bulgaria was consequently the first country to officially recognize the Republic of Macedonia's independence – as early as February 1992, followed by other countries as well. The new Macedonian constitution took effect 20 November 1991 and called for a system of government based on a parliamentary democracy. Kiro Gligorov became the first President of the new independent state, succeeded by Boris Trajkovski. In early January 2001 armed conflict took place between the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army (UÇK) militant group and the Republic of Macedonia's security forces. The conflict partially ended with the signing of the Ohrid Framework Agreement by the government of the Republic of Macedonia and Albanian representatives on 13 August 2001, which provided for greater rights for Macedonian Albanian population. In January 2002, the Macedonian conflict ended when the amnesty was announced to Albanian irregulars and rebels. Occasional unrest continued throughout 2002.
Slavs first arrived in the region late 6th and early 7th centuries AD when Slavic-speaking populations overturned Macedonia's ethnic composition. As a result, the appropriation by the "Republic of Macedonia" of what Greece held as its "Greek symbols", raised concerns in Greece as well as fuelling nationalist anger. This anger was reinforced by the legacy of the Civil War and the view in some quarters, that members of Greece's Slavic-speaking minority were pro-Yugoslavian and presented a danger to its borders. The status of the Republic of Macedonia became a heated political issue in Greece where demonstrations took place in Athens while one million Macedonian Greeks took to the streets in Thessaloniki in 1992, under the slogan: "Macedonia is Greek", referring to the name and ancient history of the region, not posing a territorial claim against their northern neighbor. Initially, the Greek government objected formally to any use of the name Macedonia (including any derivative names) and also to the use of symbols such as the Vergina Sun. On the other hand, also in 1992, demonstrations by more than 100,000 ethnic Macedonians took place in Skopje, the capital of the Republic of Macedonia.
The controversy was not just nationalist, but it also played out in Greece's internal politics. The two leading Greek political parties, the ruling conservative New Democracy under Constantine Mitsotakis and the socialist PASOK under Andreas Papandreou, sought to outbid each other in whipping up nationalist sentiment and the long-term (rather than immediate) threat posed by the apparent irredentist policies of Skopje. To complicate matters further, New Democracy itself was divided; the then prime minister, Mitsotakis, favored a compromise solution on the Macedonian question, while his foreign minister Adonis Samaras took a hard-line approach. The two eventually fell out and Samaras was sacked, with Mitsotakis reserving the foreign ministry for himself. He failed to reach an agreement on the Macedonian issue despite United Nations mediation; he fell from power in October 1993, largely as a result of Samaras causing the government's majority of one to fall in September 1993.
When Andreas Papandreou took power following the October 1993 elections, he established a "hard line" position on the issue. The United Nations recommended recognition of the "Republic of Macedonia" under the temporary name of the "former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia", which would be used internationally while the country continued to use "Republic of Macedonia" as its constitutional name. The United States and European Union (therefore, including Greece) agreed to this proposal and duly recognised the Republic of Macedonia. This was followed by new, though smaller demonstrations in Greek cities against what was termed a "betrayal" by Greece's allies. Papandreou supported and encouraged the demonstrations, boosting his own popularity by taking the "hard line" against Macedonia. In February 1994, he imposed a total trade embargo on the country, with the exception of food, medicines and humanitarian aid. The effect on Macedonia's economy was limited, mainly because the real damage to its economy had been caused by the collapse of Yugoslavia and the loss of central European markets due to the war. Also, many Greeks broke the trade embargo by entering through Bulgaria. However, the embargo had bad impact on Macedonia's economy as the country was cut off from the port of Thessaloniki and became landlocked because of the UN embargo on Yugoslavia to the north, and the Greek embargo to the south. Later, the signing of the Interim accord between Greece and Macedonia marked the increased cooperation between the two neighboring states. The blockade had a political cost for Greece, as there was little understanding or sympathy for the country's position, and exasperation over what was seen as Greek obstructionism from some of its European Union partners. Athens was criticized in some quarters for contributing to the rising tension in the Balkans, even though the wars in the former Yugoslavia were widely seen as having been triggered by the premature recognition of its successor republics, a move to which Greece had objected from the beginning. It later emerged that Greece had only agreed to the dissolution of Yugoslavia in return for EU solidarity on the Macedonian issue. In 1994, the European Commission took Greece to the European Court of Justice in an effort to overturn the embargo, but while the court provisionally ruled in Greece's favor, the embargo was lifted by Athens the following year before a final verdict was reached. This was for the "Republic of Macedonia" and Greece to enter into an "interim agreement" in which Macedonia agreed to remove any implied territorial claims to the greater Macedonia region from its constitution and to drop the Vergina Sun from its flag. In return, Greece lifted the blockade.
Before 2019, most countries recognized North Macedonia under its former constitutional name, the Republic of Macedonia, notably the United States, the People's Republic of China and Russia, and also its neighbours Bulgaria, Serbia, ("See:" List of countries' positions in the Macedonia naming dispute) although as the country was referred in the UN only under the provisional reference the "former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia", the constitutional name was generally used only in bilateral relations and in relations where a state not recognising the former constitutional name was not a party.
Discussions continued over the Greek objection regarding the country's name, with the Greek government linking progress on the issue to the Republic of Macedonia's accession to the European Union and NATO (for more on this, see Accession of Macedonia to the European Union).
Macedonia, Croatia and Albania were qualified to join NATO and an invitation for those three countries was planned to be issued on the NATO summit in Bucharest (Romania), in April 2008. Before the beginning of the summit, the American president Bush said that NATO would make a historic decision on the admission of three Balkan nations: Croatia, Albania and Macedonia; and that the United States strongly supported inviting these nations to join NATO. However, during the summit NATO leaders decided not to extend a membership invitation to Macedonia because Greece vetoed the move after the dispute over the name issue. The Macedonian representative and negotiator with Greece in the name issue complained that the Republic of Macedonia was punished not because it had failed to fulfill NATO accession criteria, but because it had been trying to defend its national identity. The NATO leaders agreed to extend a membership invitation for Macedonia as soon as the name issue with Greece is resolved.
In November 2008, Republic of Macedonia filed a lawsuit against Greece before the International Court of Justice in The Hague accusing Athens that it violated the Interim Accord by blocking its NATO membership. In 1995, the two countries signed an agreement by which Macedonia agreed to use the provisional reference in international organizations, while Greece pledged not to block Macedonia's integration into the European Union and NATO.
In March 2009, the European Parliament expressed support for the Republic of Macedonia's EU candidacy and asked the EU to grant the country a date for the start of accession talks by the end of 2009, regretting that the country is waiting three years after the country was granted a candidate status, which makes a demoralizing effect on Macedonia and brings risks of destabilizing the whole region. The parliament also recommended a speedy lifting of the visa regime for the country citizens.
The number of ethnic Macedonians in Bulgaria is controversial as several Bulgarian censuses showed conflicting numbers of ethnic Macedonians living in that country. As the Bulgarian authorities did not publish the results of the 1946 census regarding the number of ethnic Macedonians in Bulgaria, Yugoslav sources claimed that some 252,000 people declared themselves as Macedonians in that census. Bulgarian embassy in London in 1991 stated that some 169,000 people were recorded as Macedonians on the same census. The census in 1956 registered 187,789 ethnic Macedonians in Bulgaria. During this period the Macedonian Language was to be the official language of Pirin Macedonia. In 1992 the number of the ethnic Macedonians was 10,803 and in 2001 only 5,071 citizens declared as ethnic Macedonians. Bulgarian governments and public opinion throughout the period continued their policy of non-recognition of Macedonians as a distinct ethnic group. The recent Bulgarian view on the issue is that the Bulgarian policy after the Second World War regarding the Macedonians in Bulgaria was conducted despite the unwillingness of the local population to cooperate, in the conditions of the pressure and reprisals by the Bulgarian communists authorities against the Bulgarians in Pirin Macedonia. After 1958 when the pressure from Moscow decreased, Sofia turned back to the view that the separate Macedonian language did not exist and that the Macedonians in Blagoevgrad province (Pirin Macedonia) were actually Bulgarians.
There are several ethnic Macedonian organizations in Bulgaria: "Traditional Macedonian Organization Ilinden", later renamed the "IMRO independent – Ilinden", registered in 1992 at the Sofia City Court. Later, in 1998, the organization was registered as a public NGO. The "United Macedonian Organization (UMO) – Ilinden" is another organization. In 1990, the Blagoevgrad District Court refused to register this organization as some parts of the organization statute were not in accordance with the Bulgarian Constitution. In October 1994 this association split up on three different factions. Later two wings were unified under the "UMO Ilinden – PIRIN" organization. In 1998 the European Commission of Human Rights gave admissibility to two out of five complaints of Macedonians from Pirin Macedonia. After the Bulgarian Electoral Committee endorsed in 2001 the registration of a wing of UMO Ilinden, which had dropped separatist demands from its Charter, the mother organization became largely inactive. In 2007, the Sofia City Court refused registration of UMO Ilinden Pirin organization, despite an October 2005 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that a previous ban of the party violated rights to freedom of association and assembly. In November the European Parliament Rapporteur on Bulgaria and the Enlargement Commissioner of the European Commission urged the government to register the organization.
There were repeated complaints of official harassment of ethnic Macedonian activists in the 1990s. Attempts of ethnic Macedonian organization UMO Ilinden to commemorate the grave of revolutionary Yane Sandanski throughout the 1990s were usually hampered by the Bulgarian police. Several incidents of mobbing of UMO Ilinden members by Bulgarian Macedonian organization IMRO activists were also reported.
There is a newspaper published by the Macedonian organizations in Bulgaria, "Narodna Volja" ("People's Will"), which is printed in 2,500 copies.
Some cases of harassment of organisations of the Bulgarians in Republic of Macedonia and activists have been reported. In 2000 several teenagers threw smoke bombs at the conference of Bulgarian organisation Radko in Skopje, causing panic and confusion among the delegates. The Macedonian Constitutional Court annulled the status and program of the organisation (hence terminating its existence), as those documents question the constitutional establishment of Macedonia and creating national and religious hatred and intolerance. Since then, apparently there are very little or not reported public activities of that organization.
In 2001 Radko issued in Skopje the original version of the folk song collection "Bulgarian Folk Songs" by the Miladinov Brothers (issued under an edited name in the Republic of Macedonia and viewed as a collection of Slav Macedonian lyrics). The book triggered a wave of other publications, among which the memoirs of the Greek bishop of Kastoria, in which he talked about the Greek-Bulgarian church struggle at the beginning of the 20th century, as well the Report of the Carnegie Commission on the causes and conduct of the Balkan Wars from 1913. Neither of these addressed the ethnic Macedonian population of Macedonia as Macedonians but as Bulgarians. Being the first publications to question the official Macedonian position of the existence of a distinct Macedonian identity going back to the time of Alexander the Great (Macedonism), the books triggered a reaction of shock and disbelief in Macedonian public opinion. The scandal after the publication of "Bulgarian Folk Songs" resulted in the sacking of the Macedonian Minister of Culture, Dimitar Dimitrov.
As of 2000, Bulgaria started to grant Bulgarian citizenship to members of the Bulgarian minorities in a number of countries, including the Republic of Macedonia. The vast majority of the applications have been from Macedonian citizens. As of May 2004, some 14,000 Macedonians had applied for a Bulgarian citizenship on the grounds of Bulgarian origin and 4,000 of them had already received their Bulgarian passports. According to the official Bulgarian sources, in the period between 2000 and 2006 some 30,000 Macedonian citizens applied for Bulgarian citizenship, attracted by the Bulgaria's recent positive development and the opportunity to get European Union passports after Bulgaria joined EU on the beginning of 2007. In 2006 the former Macedonian Premier and chief of IMRO-DPMNE Ljubčo Georgievski became a Bulgarian citizen.
The rules governing good neighbourly relations agreed between Bulgaria and the Republic of Macedonia were set in the reaffirmed by a joint memorandum signed on 22 January 2008 in Sofia. There are regular contacts between the Macedonian and Bulgarian officials, confirming the relatively good relationships between the two neighboring countries.
Bulgaria has proposed to sign a treaty (based on that 1999 Joint Declaration) guaranteeing the good neighbourly relations between the two countries, to enable Bulgarian support for the accession of the Republic of Macedonia to the European Union.
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History of North Macedonia
The history of Republic of North Macedonia encompasses the history of the territory of the modern state of Republic of Macedonia as well as that of the Macedonian people and the areas they inhabited historically.
In antiquity, most of the territory that is now North Macedonia was included in the kingdom of Paeonia, which was populated by the Paeonians, a people of Thracian origins, but also parts of ancient Illyria and Dardania, inhabited by various Illyrian peoples, and Lyncestis and Pelagonia populated by the ancient Greek Molossian tribes. None of these had fixed boundaries; they were sometimes subject to the Kings of Macedon, and sometimes broke away.
In the late 6th century BC, the Achaemenid Persians under Darius the Great conquered the Paeonians, incorporating what is today North Macedonia within their vast territories. Following the loss in the Second Persian invasion of Greece in 479 BC, the Persians eventually withdrew from their European territories, including from what is today North Macedonia.
In 336 BC Philip II of Macedon fully annexed Upper Macedonia, including its northern part and southern Paeonia, which both now lie within North Macedonia. Philip's son Alexander the Great conquered most of the remainder of the region, incorporating it in his empire, with exclusion of Dardania. The Romans included most of the Republic in their province of Macedonia, but the northernmost parts (Dardania) lay in Moesia; by the time of Diocletian, they had been subdivided, and the Republic was split between Macedonia Salutaris and Moesia prima. Little is known about the Slavs before the 5th century.
At this period the area divided from the Jireček Line was populated from people of Thraco-Roman or Illyro-Roman origins, as well from Hellenized citizens of the Byzantine Empire and Byzantine Greeks. The ancient languages of the local Thraco-Illyrian people had already gone extinct before the arrival of the Slavs, and their cultural influence was highly reduced due to the repeated barbaric invasions on the Balkans during the early Middle Ages, accompanied by persistent hellenization, romanisation and later slavicisation. South Slavic tribes settled in the territory of present-day North Macedonia in the 6th century. The Slavic settlements were referred to by Byzantine Greek historians as "Sklavines". The Sklavines participated in several assaults against the Byzantine Empire - alone or aided by Bulgars or Avars. Around 680 AD the Bulgar group, led by khan Kuber (who belonged to the same clan as the Danubian Bulgarian khan Asparukh), settled in the Pelagonian plain, and launched campaigns to the region of Thessaloniki.
In the late 7th century Justinian II organized massive expeditions against the Sklaviniai of the Greek peninsula, in which he reportedly captured over 110,000 Slavs and transferred them to Cappadocia. By the time of Constans II (who also organized campaigns against the Slavs), the significant number of the Slavs of Macedonia were captured and transferred to central Asia Minor where they were forced to recognize the authority of the Byzantine emperor and serve in its ranks.
Use of the name "Sklavines" as a nation on its own was discontinued in Byzantine records after circa 836 as those Slavs in the Macedonia region became a population in the First Bulgarian Empire. Originally two distinct peoples, "Sklavines" and "Bulgars", the Bulgars assimilated the Slavic language/identity whilst maintaining the Bulgarian demonym and name of the empire. Slavic influence in the region strengthened along with the rise of this state, which incorporated the entire region to its domain in AD 837. Saints Cyril and Methodius, Byzantine Greeks born in Thessaloniki, were the creators of the first Slavic Glagolitic alphabet and Old Church Slavonic language. They were also apostles-Christianizators of the Slavic world. Their cultural heritage was acquired and developed in medieval Bulgaria, where after 885 the region of Ohrid became a significant ecclesiastical center with the nomination of the Saint Clement of Ohrid for "first archbishop in Bulgarian language" with residence in this region. In conjunction with another disciple of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Saint Naum, he created a flourishing Bulgarian cultural center around Ohrid, where over 3,000 pupils were taught in the Glagolitic and Cyrillic script in what is now called Ohrid Literary School.
At the end of the 10th century, much of what is now North Macedonia became the political and cultural center of the First Bulgarian Empire under Tsar Samuil; while the Byzantine emperor Basil II came to rule the eastern part of the empire (what is now Bulgaria), including the then capital Preslav, in 972. A new capital was established at Ohrid, which also became the seat of the Bulgarian Patriarchate. From then on, the Bulgarian model became an integral part of wider Slavic culture as a whole. After several decades of almost incessant fighting, Bulgaria came under Byzantine rule in 1018. The whole of North Macedonia was incorporated into the Byzantine Empire as "Theme of Bulgaria" and the Bulgarian Patriarchate was reduced in rank to an archbishopric.
Dobromir Chrysos rebelled against the emperor and after an unsuccessful imperial campaign in autumn 1197, the emperor sued for peace and recognized Dobromir-Chrysus’ rights to lands between the Strymon and Vardar, including Strumica and the fortress of Prosek.
In the 13th and 14th centuries, Byzantine control was punctuated by periods of Bulgarian and Serbian rule. For example, Konstantin Asen - a former nobleman from Skopje - ruled as tsar of Bulgaria from 1257 to 1277. Later, Skopje became a capital of the Serbian Empire under Stefan Dušan. After the dissolution of the empire, the area became a domain of independent local Serbian rulers from the Mrnjavčević and Dragaš houses. The domain of the Mrnjavčević house included western parts of present-day North Macedonia and domains of the Dragaš house included eastern parts. The capital of the state of Mrnjavčević house was Prilep. There are only two known rulers from the Mrnjavčević house - king Vukašin Mrnjavčević and his son, king Marko. King Marko became a vassal of the Ottoman Empire and later died in the Battle of Rovine.
Conquered by the Ottoman army at the end of the 14th century, the region remained a part of the Ottoman Empire for over 500 years, as part of the province or Eyalet of Rumelia. During this in the second half of the 15th century the albanian Leader of the League of Lezhë Skanderbeg was able to occupy places in western North Macedonia that were under Ottoman rule like the then well known city of Ohrid (Albanian Ohër) in the Battle of Ohrid. This Did not last long and the places were again occupied by the Ottomans. Rumelia (Turkish: "Rumeli") means "Land of the Romans" in Turkish, referring to the lands conquered by the Ottoman Turks from the Byzantine Empire.). Over the centuries Rumelia Eyalet was reduced in size through administrative reforms, until by the nineteenth century it consisted of a region of central Albania and north-western part of the current state of North Macedonia with its capital at Manastir or present day Bitola. Rumelia Eyalet was abolished in 1867 and the territory of North Macedonia subsequently became part of the province of Manastir Vilayet until the end of Ottoman rule in 1912.
During the period of Ottoman rule the region gained a substantial Turkish minority, especially in the religious sense of Muslim; some of those Muslims became so through conversions. During the Ottoman rule, Skopje and Monastir (Bitola) were capitals of separate Ottoman provinces (eyalets). The valley of the river Vardar, which was later to become the central area of North Macedonia, was ruled by the Ottoman Empire prior to the First Balkan War of 1912, with the exception of the brief period in 1878 when it was liberated from Ottoman rule after the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78), becoming part of Bulgaria. In 1903, a short-lived Kruševo Republic was proclaimed in the south-western part of present-day North Macedonia by the rebels of the Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising. Most of the ethnographers and travellers during Ottoman rule classified Slavic speaking people in Macedonia as Bulgarians. Examples include the 17th century traveller Evliya Çelebi in his "Seyahatname: Book of Travels" to the Ottoman census of Hilmi Pasha in 1904 and later. However, they also remarked that the language spoken in Macedonia had somewhat of a distinctive character — often described as a "Western Bulgarian dialect" as other Bulgarian dialects in modern western Bulgaria. Evidence also exists that certain Macedonian Slavs, particularly those in the northern regions, considered themselves as Serbs, on the other hand the intention to join Greece predominated in southern Macedonia where it was supported by substantial part of the Slavic-speaking population too. Although references are made referring to Slavs in Macedonia being identified as Bulgarians, some scholars suggest that ethnicity in medieval times was more fluid than what we see it to be today, an understanding derived from nineteenth century nationalistic ideals of a homogeneous nation-state.
During the period of Bulgarian National Revival, many Bulgarians from Vardar Macedonia supported the struggle for creation of Bulgarian cultural educational and religious institutions, including Bulgarian Exarchate.
The region was captured by the Kingdom of Serbia during First Balkan War of 1912 and was subsequently annexed to Serbia in the post-war peace treaties. It had no administrative autonomy and was called "Južna Srbija" ("Southern Serbia") or "Stara Srbija" ("Old Serbia"). It was occupied by Kingdom of Bulgaria between 1915 and 1918. After the First World War, the Kingdom of Serbia joined the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. In 1929, the kingdom was officially renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and was divided into provinces called banovinas. The territory of Vardar Banovina had Skopje as its capital and it included what eventually became modern North Macedonia.
After World War I (1914–1918) the Slavs in Serbian (Vardar) Macedonia were regarded as southern Serbs and the language they spoke a southern Serbian dialect. The Bulgarian, Greek and Romanian schools were closed, the Bulgarian priests and all non-Serbian teachers were expelled. The policy of Serbianization in the 1920s and 1930s clashed with pro-Bulgarian sentiment stirred by Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) detachments infiltrating from Bulgaria, whereas local communists favoured the path of self-determination.
In 1925, D. J. Footman, the British vice consul at Skopje, addressed a lengthy report for the Foreign Office. He wrote that "the majority of the inhabitants of "Southern Serbia" are Orthodox Christian Macedonians, ethnologically more akin to the Bulgarians than to the Serbs. He also pointed to the existence of the tendency to seek an independent Macedonia with Salonica as its capital." During World War II, the Vardar Banovina was occupied between 1941 and 1944 by Italian-ruled Albania, which annexed the Albanian-populated western regions, and pro-German Bulgaria, which occupied the remainder. The occupying powers persecuted those inhabitants of the province who opposed the regime; this prompted some of them to join the Communist resistance movement of Josip Broz Tito. However, the Bulgarian army was well received by most of the population when it entered Macedonia and it was able to recruit from the local population, which formed as much as 40% to 60% of the soldiers in certain battalions.
Following World War II, Yugoslavia was reconstituted as a federal state under the leadership of Tito's Yugoslav Communist Party. When the former Vardar province was established in 1944, most of its territory was transferred into a separate republic while the northernmost parts of the province remained with Serbia. In 1946, the new republic was granted federal status as an autonomous "People's Republic of Macedonia" within the new Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In the 1963 Constitution of Yugoslavia it was slightly renamed, to bring it in line with the other Yugoslav republics, as the Socialist Republic of Macedonia.
Greece was concerned by the initiatives of the Yugoslav government, as they were seen as a pretext for future territorial claims against the Greek province of "Northern Greece" which formed the bulk of historical Macedonia and was also officially called 'Macedonia'. The Yugoslav authorities also promoted the development of the Macedonians' ethnic identity and Macedonian language. The Macedonian language was codified in 1944 (Keith 2003), from the Slavic dialect spoken around Veles. This further angered both Greece and Bulgaria, because of the possible territorial claims of the new states to the Greek and Bulgarian parts of the region of Macedonia received after the Balkan Wars.
During the Greek Civil War (1944–1949), many Macedonians (regardless of ethnicity) participated in the ELAS resistance movement organized by the Greek Communist Party. ELAS and Yugoslavia were on good terms until 1949, when they split due to Tito's lack of allegiance to Joseph Stalin (cf. Cominform). After the end of the war, the ELAS fighters who took refuge in southern Yugoslavia and Bulgaria were not all permitted by Greece to return: only those who considered themselves Greeks were allowed, whereas those who considered themselves Bulgarians or Macedonians were barred. These events also contributed to the bad state of Yugoslav-Greek relations in Macedonia.
In 1990, the form of government peacefully changed from socialist state to parliamentary democracy. The first multi-party elections were held on 11 and 25 November and 9 December 1990. After the collective presidency led by Vladimir Mitkov was dissolved, Kiro Gligorov became the first democratically elected president of the Republic of Macedonia on 31 January 1991. On 16 April 1991, the parliament adopted a constitutional amendment removing "Socialist" from the official name of the country, and on 7 June of the same year, the new name, Republic of Macedonia, was officially established.
On 8 September 1991, the Republic of Macedonia held a referendum where 95.26% voted for independence from Yugoslavia, under the name of the "Republic of Macedonia". The question of the referendum was formulated as "Would you support independent Macedonia with the right to enter future union of sovereign states of Yugoslavia?" (Macedonian: Дали сте за самостојна Македонија со право да стапи во иден сојуз на суверени држави на Југославија?). On 25 September 1991 the Declaration of Independence was formally adopted by the Macedonian Parliament making the Republic of Macedonia an independent country - although in Macedonia independence day is still celebrated as the day of the referendum 8 September. A new Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia was adopted on 17 November 1991.
Bulgaria was the first country to recognize the new state under its constitutional name. However, international recognition of the new country was delayed by Greece's objection to the use of what it considered a Hellenic name and national symbols, as well as controversial clauses in the Republic's constitution. To compromise, Macedonia was admitted to the United Nations under the provisional name of "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" on 8 April 1993.
Greece was still dissatisfied and it imposed a trade blockade in February 1994. The sanctions were lifted in September 1995 after Macedonia changed its flag and aspects of its constitution that were perceived as granting it the right to intervene in the affairs of other countries. The two neighbours immediately went ahead with normalizing their relations, but the state's name remains a source of local and international controversy. The usage of each name remains controversial to supporters of the other.
After the state was admitted to the United Nations under the temporary reference "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia", other international organisations adopted the same convention. More than half of the UN's member states have recognized the country as the Republic of Macedonia, including the United States of America while the rest use the temporary reference "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" or have not established any diplomatic relations with Macedonia.
In 1999, the Kosovo War led to 340,000 Albanian refugees from Kosovo fleeing into Macedonia, greatly disrupting normal life in the region and threatening to upset the balance between Macedonians and Albanians. Refugee camps were set up in Macedonia. Athens did not interfere with the Republic's affairs when NATO forces moved to and from the region ahead a possible invasion of Yugoslavia. Thessaloniki was the main depot for humanitarian aid to the region. The Republic did not become involved in the conflict.
In end the war, Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević reached agreement with NATO which allowed refugees to return under UN protection. However, the war increased tensions and relations between ethnic Macedonians and Albanian Macedonians became strained. On the positive side, Athens and Ankara presented a united front of 'non-involvement'. In Greece, there was a strong reaction against NATO and the United States.
In the spring of 2001, ethnic Albanian insurgents calling themselves the National Liberation Army (some of whom were former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army) took up arms in the west of the Republic of Macedonia. They demanded that the constitution be rewritten to enshrine certain ethnic Albanian interests such as language rights. The guerillas received support from Albanians in NATO-controlled Kosovo and ethnic Albanian guerrillas in the demilitarized zone between Kosovo and the rest of Serbia. The fighting was concentrated in and around Tetovo, the fifth largest city in the republic.
After a joint NATO-Serb crackdown on Albanian guerrillas in Kosovo, European Union (EU) officials were able to negotiate a cease-fire in June. The government would give ethnic Albanians greater civil rights, and the guerrilla groups would voluntarily relinquish their weapons to NATO monitors. This agreement was a success, and in August 2001 3,500 NATO soldiers conducted "Operations Essential Harvest" to retrieve the arms. Directly after the operation finished in September the NLA officially dissolved itself. Ethnic relations have since improved significantly, although hardliners on both sides have been a continued cause for concern and some low level violence continues particularly directed against police.
On 26 February 2004, President Boris Trajkovski died in a plane crash near Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The results of the official investigation revealed that the cause of the plane accident was procedural mistakes by the crew, committed during the approach to land at Mostar airport.
In March 2004, the Republic of Macedonia submitted an application for membership of the EU. On 17 December 2005, EU Presidency conclusions listed the Republic of Macedonia as an accession candidate. It was expected that the EU would announce in late 2006 the date for commencement of EU accession negotiations.
In August 2005, Poland became the 112th country, out of 191 total members of UN, to recognize the then Republic of Macedonia under its constitutional name. Before a permanent agreement between Greece and the Republic of Macedonia about the latter's name had been reached, the proposal was to name it 'Republika Makedonija-Skopje' (with that spelling), but was rejected by the Republic of Macedonia. The UN mediator Matthew Nimetz proposed another form several months afterward, proposing that the name "Republika Makedonija" should be used by the countries that have recognized the country under that name and that Greece should use the formula "Republika Makedonija – Skopje", while the international institutions and organizations should use the name "Republika Makedonia" in Latin alphabet transcription, but this form was rejected by Greece.
In June 2018, an agreement was reached between the governments of Greece and the then Republic of Macedonia to rename the latter the Republic of North Macedonia, or North Macedonia for short. This agreement, after it had been accepted by the respective legislatures of both countries, came into effect on 12 February 2019, thus ending the disputes.
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Geography of North Macedonia
North Macedonia is a country situated in southeastern Europe with geographic coordinates , bordering Kosovo and Serbia to the north, Bulgaria to the east, Greece to the south and Albania to the west. The country is part of the wider region of Macedonia and makes up most of Vardar Macedonia. The country is a major transportation corridor from Western and Central Europe to Southern Europe and the Aegean Sea. North Macedonia is a landlocked country but has three major natural lakes: Lake Ohrid, Lake Prespa and Lake Dojran. It has a water area of 857 km2, while its land area is 24,856 km2.
Phytogeographically, Macedonia belongs to the Illyrian province of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the WWF and Digital Map of European Ecological Regions by the European Environment Agency, North Macedonia's territory can be subdivided into four ecoregions: the Pindus Mountains mixed forests, Balkan mixed forests, Rhodopes mixed forests and Aegean sclerophyllous and mixed forests.
North Macedonia has a unique climate explained by its location and topography. The climate of the plains is a Mediterranean climate combined with the influence of the Black Sea. The country also holds continental characteristics, which are accentuated by the mountains in the south which prevent hot air from the south from moving to the north. Conversely, the Šar Mountains, which are located in the northwestern part, block cold northern winds. In whole, the northern and western parts of the country are relatively close to a Continental climate and the southern and eastern to a Mediterranean climate.
North Macedonia has four seasons, but the lengths of the seasons varies based on geography. The spring is often very short. Summers are subtropical and it is not uncommon to see temperatures of above during this season, especially in the plains along the valley of the Vardar river. Winters, although moderate, can be quite cold. Snowfalls during winter are common and occasionally heavy. The average annual temperature of the air is , but the plains experience higher temperatures, . The warmest month is July, which has an average temperature of and the coldest is January, with a temperature of . The maximum and minimum temperatures recorded in North Macedonia to date are and , respectively.
The rainfall is abundant in the western and eastern parts of the country, but the temperature decreases significantly in the Vardar region. This region sees warmer winters through the "Vardarec" wind. This wind comes up from the mouth of the Vardar river and brings warm air. Skopje, considered a low-lying city, has an average of 64 rainy days per year. The month of October is the wettest with 61 mm; the driest is August with 28 mm. Rains are most common in the spring and fall.
The country has some 766 km of boundaries, shared with Kosovo (159 km or 99 mi) to the northwest, Serbia (62 km or 39 mi) to the North, Bulgaria (148 km) to the east, Greece (246 km) to the south, and Albania (151 km) to the west.
The north border with Serbia and Kosovo is 221 kilometers in length. The border was made after World War II, between SR Macedonia and SR Serbia. But in 2008 when Kosovo declared independence the border with it was remarked again. Rather more than half of the boundary separates North Macedonia from Kosovo. From the tripoint with Albania, the boundary trends north-eastwards along the watershed of Šar Mountain. It describes a curve to the south across the River Lepenec and then turns to north-east to traverse Mount Crna before taking a course slightly to the north of east across the landscape features to the tripoint with Bulgaria.
The east border with Bulgaria has length of approximately 148 km. The settled boundary from Yugoslavia and the People's Republic of Bulgaria was accepted after the independence in 1992. The boundary starts from the tripoint with Greece, the boundary runs north, crossing the River of Strumica and then rising to the watershed which it follows northwards and then north-westwards to the tripoint with Serbia.
The south border that splits North Macedonia from Greece is 228 km long and it is the longest border. It was marked with the Treaty of Bucharest on 10 August 1913. The border starts from the tripoint with Albania, in Lake Prespa, the boundary runs in a straight line eastwards across the lake and then continues in the north of east trend across the relief to the Voras Oros (Nidže), where it turns north-eastwards. It traverses the watershed of the Voras Oros and then continues eastwards along the watershed before dropping to the valley of Vardar river. The boundary continues eastwards and then turns north across the Dojran lake, before, on the latitude of Valandovo, turning east to the tripoint with Bulgaria on Mount Tumba.
The boundary with Albania was marked first in 1926 and then remarked with the Treaty of Paris in 1947. The boundary starts from the tripoint with Kosovo and follows a watershed before crossing, and for a short distance, following the Black Drin river and continuing along a crest line to Ohrid Lake. It crosses the lake, leaving approximately one-third in Albania, traverses a high ridge and meets the tripoint with Greece in Lake Prespa.
North Macedonia is a landlocked country that is geographically clearly defined by a central valley formed by the Vardar river and framed along its borders by mountain ranges. The terrain is mostly rugged, located between the Šar Mountains and Osogovo, which frame the valley of the Vardar river. Three large lakes — Lake Ohrid, Lake Prespa and Dojran Lake — lie on the southern borders, bisected by the frontiers with Albania and Greece. Ohrid is considered to be one of the oldest lakes and biotopes in the world. The region is seismically active and has been the site of destructive earthquakes in the past, most recently in 1963 when Skopje was heavily damaged by a major earthquake, killing over 1,000.
North Macedonia also has scenic mountains. They belong to two different mountain ranges: the first is the Šar Mountains that continues to the West Vardar/Pelagonia group of mountains (Baba Mountain, Nidže, Kozuf and Jakupica), also known as the Dinaric range. The second range is the Osogovo–Belasica mountain chain, also known as the Rhodope range. The mountains belonging to the Šar Mountains and the West Vardar/Pelagonia range are younger and higher than the older mountains that are part of the Osogovo-Belasica mountain group. The ten highest mountains in North Macedonia are:
In North Macedonia there are 1,100 large sources of water. The rivers flow into three different basins: the Aegean, the Adriatic and that Black Sea basin.
The Aegean basin is the largest. It covers 87% of the country's territory, which is 22,075 km2 . Vardar, the largest river in this basin, drains 80% of the territory or 20,459 km2. Its valley plays an important part in the economy and the communication system of the country. The project named The Vardar Valley is considered to be crucial for the strategic development of the country.
The river Black Drim forms the Adriatic basin, which covers an area of about 3,320 km², i. e. 13% of the territory. It issues from Lakes Prespa and Ohrid.
The Black Sea basin is the smallest with only 37 km² It covers the northern side of Mount Skopska Crna Gora. Here is the source of the river Binačka Morava which joins the South Morava and later the Danube, which eventually flows into the Black Sea.
Despite being a landlocked country, North Macedonia has three large lakes (Ohrid, Prespa, and Dojran), three artificial lakes and roughly 50 ponds.
There are nine spa resorts in North Macedonia: Banište, Banja Bansko, Istibanja, Katlanovo, Kežovica, Kosovrasti, Banja Kočani, Kumanovski Banji and Negorci.
The Vardar is the longest and most important river in North Macedonia. It is long, and drains an area of around .
The river rises at Vrutok, a few kilometers north of Gostivar in the Republic of North Macedonia. It passes through Gostivar, Skopje and into Veles, crosses the Greek border near Gevgelija, Polykastro and Axioupoli, before emptying into the Aegean Sea in Central Macedonia west of Thessaloniki in northern Greece.
The Vardar basin includes two-thirds of the territory of the Republic of North Macedonia. For that the area is called "Vardar Macedonia" after the river, to distinguish it from "Aegean Macedonia" (in Greece) and "Pirin Macedonia" (in Bulgaria).
The valley comprises fertile lands in Polog, Gevgelija and other parts. The river is surrounded by mountains elsewhere. The M1 / E75, connecting with Greek National Road 1, runs through the valley along the river's entire length to near Skopje.
The river is depicted on the coat of arms of Skopje, which in turn is incorporated in the city's flag.
Lake Ohrid (Macedonian: Охридско Езеро, Ohridsko Ezero) straddles the mountainous border between southwestern North Macedonia and eastern Albania. Lake Ohrid is the deepest lake of the Balkans, with a maximum depth of 288 m (940 ft) and a mean depth of 155 m (508 ft). It covers an area of , containing an estimated 55.4 km³ of water. It is 30.4 km long by 14.8 km wide at its maximum extent with a shoreline length of 87.53 km, shared between North Macedonia (56.02 km) and Albania (31.51 km). The lake drains an area of around 2600 km² and is fed primarily by underground springs on the eastern shore (about 50% of total inflow), with roughly 25% shares from rivers and direct precipitation. Over 20% of the lake's water comes from nearby Lake Prespa, about to the southeast and at 150 m higher altitude than Lake Ohrid.
Similar to Lake Baikal and Lake Tanganyika, Lake Ohrid harbors endemic species covering the whole food-chain, from phytoplankton and sestile algae (20 species; e.g., Cyclotella fottii), over plant species (2 species; e.g., Chara ohridana), zooplankton (5 species; e.g., Cyclops ochridanus), cyprinid fish (8 species; e.g., Pachychilon pictus), to predatory fish (2 trout species; Ohrid trout Salmo letnica and "Belvica" Acantholingua ohridana) and finally its diverse endemic bottom fauna (176 species; e.g. Ochridagammarus solidus), with particularly large endemism among crustaceans, molluscs, sponges and planarians.
There are three cities on the lake's shores: Ohrid and Struga on North Macedonia's side; Pogradec in Albania. There are also several fishing villages, although tourism is now a more significant part of their income. The catchment area of the lake has a population of around 170,000 people, with 131,000 people living directly at the lake shore (43,000 in Albania and 88,000 in North Macedonia).
The Great Prespa Lake (Macedonian: Преспанско Езеро, Prespansko Ezero) is divided between Albania, Greece and North Macedonia. The biggest island in the Great Prespa Lake, on North Macedonia's side, is called "Golem Grad" ("Large Fortress"), or Snake Island (Змиски Остров). The other island "Mal Grad" ("Small Fortress", in Albania) is the site of a ruined 14th century monastery dedicated to St. Peter. Today, both islands are uninhabited. (See also: List of islands of the Republic of North Macedonia).
Because Great Prespa Lake sits about 150m above Lake Ohrid, which lies only about to the west, its waters run through underground channels in the karst and emerge from springs which feed streams running into Lake Ohrid.
Dojran Lake, located in southeastern North Macedonia, is the smallest of the three major lakes with an area of 42.7 km². It is shared between North Macedonia (27.1 km²) and Greece (15.6 km²). The town of Dojran is situated on the west coast of the lake, while the Greek village of Mouries lies to the east. To the north is the mountain Belasica and to the south is the Greek town of Doirani. The lake is round in shape, has a maximum depth of 10 metres, has a north-to-south length of 8.9 km, and is 7.1 km at its widest.
The flora of North Macedonia is represented with around 210 families, 920 genera, and around 3,700 plant species. The most abundant group are the flowering plants with around 3,200 species, which is followed by mosses (350 species) and ferns (42).
Phytogeographically, North Macedonia belongs to the Illyrian province of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the WWF and Digital Map of European Ecological Regions by the European Environment Agency, the territory of the Republic can be subdivided into four ecoregions: the Pindus Mountains mixed forests, Balkan mixed forests, Rhodopes mixed forests and Aegean sclerophyllous and mixed forests.
The fauna of the Macedonian forests is abundant and includes bears, wild boars, wolves, foxes, squirrels, chamois and deer. The lynx is found, although very rarely, in the mountains of western North Macedonia, while deer can be found in the region of Demir Kapija. Forest birds include the blackcap, the grouse, the black grouse, the imperial eagle and the forest owl.
The three artificial lakes of the country represent a separate fauna zone, an indication of long-lasting territorial and temporal isolation. The fauna of Lake Ohrid is a relict of an earlier era and the lake is widely known for its letnica trout, lake whitefish, gudgeon, roach, podust, and pior, as well as for certain species of snails of a genus older than 30 million years; similar species can only be found in Lake Baikal. Lake Ohrid is also noted in zoology texts for the European eel and its baffling reproductive cycle: it comes to Lake Ohrid from the Sargasso Sea, located in the Atlantic Ocean, and lurks in the depths of the lake for ten years. When sexually mature, the eel is driven by unexplained instincts in the autumn to return to its point of birth. There it spawns and dies, leaving its offspring to seek out Lake Ohrid to begin the cycle anew.
North Macedonia is rich in low-grade iron ore, copper, lead, zinc, chromite, manganese, nickel, tungsten, gold, silver, asbestos, and gypsum. Also it is one of possibly two places in the world where the lorandite mineral is found.
According to 2004 estimates, there are 1278 km2 of irrigated land, and 6.4 km3 of total renewable water resources.
In July 2007, fires were particularly visible in Greece, Albania and North Macedonia.
The environment is preserved in areas impractical and sparsely populated. In addition, the country has three major national parks, created under the Yugoslav regime of 1948–1958. The parks of Pelister, Mavrovo and Galičica cover an area of and allow for the protection of natural areas by their exceptional geological setting, their fauna and flora. The ornithological reserve of Ezerani, north of Lake Prespa, is 2,000 hectares big and is home to sixty animals protected by the Bern Convention.
However, if it is protected where man has little access, nature is threatened the outskirts of towns and villages. Indeed, in order to make North Macedonia, formerly rural and poor, a modern and prosperous country, the Yugoslav communist regime established many factories, often highly polluting. These factories, located mainly in the regions of Veles and Skopje are still functioning. The emissions of waste pollutants have decreased after 1991, after independence, because many companies have gone bankrupt or have reduced their activity after the transition to a market economy.
The other danger of degradation of nature lies in waste. Indeed, only the city of Skopje has a processing center for household waste in the rest of the country, so they are left in open dumps. The lack of resources and political will behind these fatal neglect for the environment.
North Macedonia is also experiencing serious problems in water management. The country, however should be able to secure its water through its dams and its sources. In summer, water restrictions are common. The summer period is also marked by the devastation of forests by wildfire. In 2008, six million trees were planted in North Macedonia to regenerate damaged forests.
The environmental degradation nevertheless mobilizes local groups and North Macedonia is a signatory to international treaties like the Kyoto Protocol.
The three national parks :
The Republic of North Macedonia consists primarily of rural country towns, with only 45% of the population concentrated in the larger towns and cities. Skopje, with more than 500,000 inhabitants, is by far the largest city in the country. The surrounding region, one of the few plains of the country, includes several other cities, like Tetovo and Gostivar. Bitola, Prilep and other significant cities, are located in the plain of Pelagonia in the south. The rest of the population is concentrated in the valley of the Vardar and the few other basins and plains of the country.
Urbanization, which is developing very fast since the communist era of Yugoslavia, has led to uncontrolled and illegal constructions. Other cities have not grown as fast as the capital, which has gained more than 300,000 inhabitants between 1948 and 1981. Bitola, Prilep and Kumanovo, the three other major cities, did not exceed 30,000 inhabitants in 1948 and have barely reached 100,000 people since. Kumanovo, which is the second largest city of North Macedonia, had only 105,000 inhabitants in 2002, which is substantial difference comparing it with the population of the capital Skopje – 506,000 inhabitants. This makes Skopje a primate city.
Population of the most populous municipalities
The Macedonians are the largest ethnic group in the country, accounting for 64.2% of the total population, according to the 2002 census. They speak the Macedonian language and most are Orthodox Christians. Ethnic Albanians are the country's largest minority, making up one-quarter of the total population. They live mainly in the west and northwest. The Turks, who comprise nearly 4% of the population, are mostly scattered, though they form a majority in two municipalities (Plasnica and Centar Župa). The Romani make up 2.7% of the population and are also concentrated throughout North Macedonia, while the Serbs, who form just under 2% of the total population, live mostly in the north of the country.
North Macedonia is divided into eight statistical regions: Skopje, Pelagonia, Polog, Vardar, Eastern, Southeastern, Northeastern and Southwestern.
The country is further divided into 84 municipalities. Until 1996, there were 123 municipalities, but several laws aimed at increasing the rights of minorities decreased the number of municipalities and modified their overall role. Skopje, the nation's capital, is itself divided into ten municipalities.
North Macedonia, like most countries in Eastern Europe, has a developing economy. Under Yugoslavia, North Macedonia saw the establishment of many factories and the significant modernisation of the country, especially after the devastating Skopje earthquake of 1963. Since independence in 1991, it has suffered the transition to market economy. Greece, which believed that the republic was monopolising the cultural and historical heritage of Macedonia, imposed a temporary embargo in 1993 and had prevented the country's accession to organisations like the European Union and NATO, until the implementation of the Prespa agreement in 2019.
In 1995, the Greek embargo was lifted and Macedonia was able to access the IMF and World Bank. The country still suffers, however, from its isolation and lack of foreign investment, to which Greece is one of the largest contributors. In 2007, the unemployment rate was estimated at 32% and the black market provided about 20% of the Gross Domestic Product.
North Macedonia's geographical positioning provides it with many advantages. One advantage is the geographical position of the country. It is the center of the Balkans, between Belgrade and Athens, Tirana and Sofia, between the Adriatic and Black Sea. The Vardar valley forms a natural corridor, which connects Greece to the rest of Europe. This corridor is crossed by the highway E75, which crosses in Europe and connects Scandinavia with Attica. This highway has also been renovated in North Macedonia with the European Agency for Reconstruction, and the communication channels that connect the Adriatic to the Black Sea, called the Corridor VIII, were also upgraded and maintained through international assistance including the Italian one.
North Macedonia is also rich with minerals. The country in fact has substantial deposits of chromium and other nonferrous metals like copper, zinc, manganese and nickel. The country also has gypsum mines, marble and granite, located in Pelagonia. Lignite, provides 80% of the Macedonian electricity. In addition to mines and quarries, the country has large cement plants and large complexes of metal, created by the communist regime.
Agriculture is encouraged by the significant water resources, managed by dams and canals. The presence of hot springs of volcanic origin can heat the greenhouses in winter, particularly in the Strumica region, whose products include tomatoes and cucumbers in the month of February. Different climates provide opportunities for various productions in the geographical area, so the vine and tobacco are operated in the south, the rice in the region of Kočani which is largely irrigated, and the wood industry is concentrated around Štip. Agriculture contributes a significant share of exports, especially with the wine and tobacco. The low cost of labor also helps the textile industry.
North Macedonia receives about 1,000,000 tourists annually and experiences a constant increase of visitors. The number of domestic tourists in the period from January to March 2008 compared to the same period of the previous year, increased 23.5%. While the number of foreign tourists in March 2008 compared to March 2007 increased 44.7%. In 2007, Lake Ohrid had received about 250,000 domestic and foreign tourists. In February 2009, nearly 28,000 tourists, or 3.2% more than the same month last year, visited North Macedonia. There was also an 8% increase in the number of foreign visitors to the country. The summer of 2009 was the city of Dojran's best tourist season with 135,000 overnight visitors, an increase of 12.5% compared to the previous year.
The tourist capital of North Macedonia, Ohrid, has been listed as an UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979.
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Demographics of North Macedonia
This article is about the demographic features of the population of North Macedonia, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
According to statistics from the European Union, the actual population has been reduced by at least 230,000 people who emigrated into European Union member states between 1998 and 2011. Further Albanian news sources estimated at October 2012 that the real population is closer to the sum of 1,744,237 people who are accounted within all of the health funds of the country. According to Bozhidar Dimitrov, the Bulgarian authorities have granted 87,000 to many of those emigrants a Bulgarian passport, as of 2012, which requires that they declare to be ethnic Bulgarians. Since Bulgaria's entry into the European Union, and under pressure from fellow European Union members, Bulgaria imposed more stringent rules and measures for the acquisition of a Bulgarian citizenship and passport.
The provisions of the Ohrid agreement to elevate any minority language if the minority in question is above 20% of the population of any municipality into a co-official language for that municipality has created friction within the government, and between officials of different political and ethnic interests, resulting to the indefinite postponement of the census which started at 2011.
Since no funds have been allocated for a census in the state budget of 2014, there is no expectation for a census before 2015. As of 2018, a planned population census is scheduled to be conducted in April 2020.
Births
Deaths
Natural increase
The process of industrialization and urbanization after the Second World War that caused the population growth to decrease involved the ethnic Macedonians to a greater extent than Muslims. Rates of increase were very high among rural Muslims: Turks and Torbesh (Macedonian Muslims) had rates 2.5 times those of the Macedonian majority, while Roma had rates 3 times as high. In 1994, Macedonians had a TFR of 2.07, while the TFR of others were: Albanian (2.10), Turkish (3.55), Roma (4.01), Serb (2.07), Vlachs (1.88) and Others (3.05). The TFR by religions was: Christian (2.17, with 2.20 for Catholics and 2.06 for Orthodox), Islam (4.02) and others (2.16).
However, it is unlikely that this high minority TFR has continued since then in North Macedonia, as Balkan fertility elsewhere (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo) has dropped sharply toward the European average. A more recent survey pegs Muslim fertility in North Macedonia at 1.7, versus 1.5 for non-Muslims.
In 2017, 21,754 children were born in North Macedonia. The ethnic affiliation of these newborns was: 11,260 (51.76%) Macedonian; 7,404 (34.03%) Albanian; 940 (4.32%) Turkish; 1,276 (5.87%) Roma; 40 (0.18%) Vlach; 129 (0.59%) Serbian; 213 (0.98%) Bosniaks; 492 (2,26%) other ethnic affiliation and unknown. In the school year 2016/2017 there were 192 715 students in elementary schools from which 104,756 (55%) were Macedonian, and 60,971 (32%) were Albanian, and in High schools there were 72 482 students from which 43,658 (60.1%) were Macedonian and 22 419 (30.9%) were Albanians. Furthermore, in 1999 Albanians accounted for 34.6% of newborns and 26.1% of students who finished high school in 2016, which was regulated by the Ministry of Education.
The following demographic statistics are from the "CIA World Factbook", unless otherwise indicated.
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Politics of North Macedonia
Politics in North Macedonia occur within the framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and parliament. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
The political system of North Macedonia consists of three branches: Legislative, Executive and Judicial. The Constitution is the highest law of the country. The political institutions are constituted by the will of its citizens by secret ballot at direct and general elections. Its political system of parliamentary democracy was established with the Constitution of 1991, which stipulates the basic principles of democracy and guarantees democratic civil freedom. The Elections for Representatives in the Assembly of North Macedonia is held in October. The Assembly is composed of 123 Representatives, who are elected for a period of four years. Out of this number, 120 are elected proportionally in 6 constituencies of 20 each, and 3 according to the majority principle, specifically for the diaspora (depending on turnout) (the territory of the Republic of North Macedonia representing one constituency). There are approximately 1.5 million voters registered in the General Electoral Roll for the election of Representatives in the Assembly of North Macedonia in 2.973 polling stations. The voting for the representatives is conducted according to the list system.
Although in Macedonian, these roles have very similar titles ( "President of the Republic of North Macedonia" and "President of the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia") it is much less confusing to refer to them in English as President and Prime Minister respectively. These are also the terms used in the English translation of the constitution.
The power of the President is fairly limited with all other executive power being vested in what the Constitution describes as the Government, i.e., the Prime Minister and Ministers.
Ministers:
The current cabinet is a coalition of SDSM, the Democratic Union for Integration, the New Social Democratic Party, Liberal Democratic Party, Alliance for Albanians, Party for the Full Emancipation of the Roma of Macedonia, and the Party for the Movement of Turks in Macedonia.
The members of the Cabinet of North Macedonia are chosen by the Prime Minister and approved by the national Parliament, however certain cabinet level positions are chosen by both President and Prime Minister, and approved by the Parliament.
The Assembly ("Sobranie") has 120 members, elected for a four-year term, by proportional representation.
There are between 120 and 140 seats, currently there are 120; members are directly elected in multi-seat constituencies by closed list proportional representation vote. There is a possibility of three people being directly elected in diaspora constituencies by a simple majority vote provided there is sufficient voter turnout.
The last election to be held was on 11 December 2016, with a second round held in one polling station on 25 December 2016. The next election is to be held in 2020.
The result of this election was as follows: percent of vote by party/coalition - VMRO-DPMNE 38.1%, SDSM coalition 36.7%, BDI 7.3%, Besa Movement 4.9%, AfA 3.1%, PDSh 2.7%, other 7.2%; seats by party - VRMO-DPMNE 51, SDSM coalition 49, BDI 10, Besa Movement 5, AfA 3, PDSh 2; note - the 3 seats for diaspora went unfilled because none of the candidates won the 6,500 minimum vote threshold.
Seats by party/coalition as of May 2019 - ruling coalition 68 (SDSM coalition 49, BDI 10, Besa Movement 3, PDSh 2, other 5), opposition coalition 52 (VMRO-DPMNE coalition 48, Besa Movement 2, AfA 2); composition - men 75, women 45, percent of women 37.5%
Judiciary power is exercised by courts, with the court system being headed by the Judicial Supreme Court, Constitutional Court and the Republican Judicial Council. The assembly appoints the judges, of which there are 22 in the Supreme Court, and 9 in the Constitutional Court. Supreme Court judges nominated by the Judicial Council, a 7-member body of legal professionals, and appointed by the Assembly; Constitutional Court judges appointed by the Assembly for nonrenewable, 9-year terms
With the passage of a new law and elections held in 2005, local government functions are divided between 78 municipalities (, ; singular: , . The capital, Skopje, is governed as a group of ten municipalities collectively referred to as "the City of Skopje". Municipalities in North Macedonia are units of local self-government. Neighbouring municipalities may establish cooperative arrangements.
The country's main political divergence is between the largely ethnically-based political parties representing the country's Macedonian majority and Albanian minority. The issue of the power balance between the two communities led to a brief war in 2001, following which a power-sharing agreement was reached. In August 2004, the Republic's parliament passed legislation redrawing local boundaries and giving greater local autonomy to ethnic Albanians in areas where they predominate.
North Macedonia is member of the ACCT,
BIS,
CE,
CEI,
EAPC,
EBRD,
ECE,
FAO,
IAEA,
IBRD,
ICAO,
ICCt,
ICRM,
IDA,
IFAD,
IFC,
IFRCS,
ILO,
IMF,
IMO,
Interpol,
IOC,
IOM (observer),
ISO,
ITU,
NATO,
OPCW,
OSCE,
PCA,
PFP,
UN,
UNCTAD,
UNESCO,
UNIDO,
UPU,
WCL,
WCO,
WHO,
WIPO,
WMO,
WToO,
WTrO (observer)
Most notable relations with other countries include: Greece, China the US and Kosovo amongst others.
North Macedonia and Greece have excellent economic and business relations, with Greece being the largest investor in the country. Until the Prespa Agreement (2018), the indeterminate status of North Macedonia's former name arose from a long-running dispute with Greece. The main points of the dispute were:
The flag: the use of Vergina Sun, a Greek state symbol, on the initial national flag used between 1992 and 1995
Constitutional issues: certain articles of the constitution that were seen as claims on Greek territory.
The naming issue was "parked" in a compromise agreed at the United Nations in 1993. However, Greece refused to grant diplomatic recognition to the Republic and imposed an economic blockade that lasted until the flag and constitutional issues were resolved in 1995. The naming issue was resolved with the Prespa Agreement, signed in 2018, and entered into force in February 2019.
The United States and North Macedonia enjoy excellent bilateral relations. The United States formally recognised North Macedonia on 8 February 1994, and the two countries established full diplomatic relations on 13 September 1995. The U.S. Liaison Office was upgraded to an embassy in February 1996, and the first U.S. Ambassador to Skopje arrived in July 1996. The development of political relations between the United States and North Macedonia has ushered in a whole host of other contacts between the two states. In 2004, the United States recognised the country under its constitutional name of that time – Republic of Macedonia.
On 12 October 1993, the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia and the Government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) established diplomatic relations with North Macedonia expressly declaring that the Government of the PRC is the sole legal government of China, and Taiwan as an inalienable part of the Chinese territory. The Government of North Macedonia affirmed it would not establish any form of official relations with Taiwan.
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Economy of North Macedonia
The economy of North Macedonia has become more liberalized, with an improved business environment, since its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, which deprived the country of its key protected markets and the large transfer payments from Belgrade. Prior to independence, North Macedonia was Yugoslavia's poorest republic (only 5% of the total federal output of goods and services). An absence of infrastructure, United Nations sanctions on its largest market the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and a Greek economic embargo hindered economic growth until 1996.
Worker remittances and foreign aid have softened the subsequent volatile recovery period. The country's GDP has increased each year except in 2001, rising by 5% in 2000. However, growth in 1999 was held down by the severe regional economic dislocations caused by the Kosovo war.
Successful privatization in 2000 boosted the country's reserves to over $700 million. Also, the leadership demonstrated a continuing commitment to economic reform, free trade, and regional integration. The economy can meet its basic food needs but depends on outside sources for all of its oil and gas and most of its modern machinery and parts. Inflation jumped to 11% in 2000, largely due to higher oil prices.
North Macedonia experiences one of Europe's biggest growth rates at an average of 4% (even during the political crisis) making it comparable to nations such as Romania and Poland.
North Macedonia's economy has almost always been completely agricultural in nature from the beginning of the Ottoman Empire when it was part of the District of Üsküp and Province of Salonika. It concentrated on pasture farming and vineyard growing. Opium poppy, introduced into the region in 1835, became an important crop as well by the late 19th century, and remained so until the 1930s.
The role of industry in the region's economy increased during the industrial age. North Macedonia was responsible for large outputs of textiles and several other goods in the Ottoman Empire. However, outdated techniques to produce the goods persisted. The stagnation of the Macedonian economy began under the rule of the Kingdom of Serbia.
When World War II ended, the local economy began to experience revitalization by way of subsidies from Federal Belgrade. The subsidies assisted North Macedonia to redevelop its lost industry and shift its agricultural-centered economy to an industry-centered economy with new hearts of industry emerging all over the country in Veles, Bitola, Shtip and Kumanovo. Previously, Skopje was the only industrial centre in North Macedonia, this expanded to several other cities during Socialist Yugoslavia.
After the fall of Socialist Yugoslavia, the economy experienced several shocks that damaged the local economy. Starting with the Western embargo on the Yugoslavian common market, and ending with the Greek embargo on North Macedonia over the country's former name, Republic of Macedonia. The economy began to recover in 1995 and experienced a full recovery after the 2001 insurgency by ethnic Albanians. North Macedonia's GDP grew by an average of 6% annually until the financial crisis of 2007–2008 when its economy contracted. The crisis had little impact on the country due to Macedonian banks' stringent rules. North Macedonia today maintains a low debt-to-GDP ratio and is experiencing a revitalized investment interest by companies from Turkey, Algeria, Albania, and others.
North Macedonia is vulnerable to economic developments in Europe - due to strong banking and trade ties - and dependent on regional integration and progress toward EU membership for continued economic growth. At independence in September 1991, North Macedonia was the least developed of the Yugoslav republics, producing a mere 5% of the total federal output of goods and services. The collapse of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia ended transfer payments from the central government and eliminated advantages from inclusion in a de facto free trade area. An absence of infrastructure, UN sanctions on the downsized Yugoslavia, and a Greek economic embargo over a dispute about the country's constitutional name and flag hindered economic growth until 1996. Since then, North Macedonia has maintained macroeconomic stability with low inflation, but it has so far lagged the region in attracting foreign investment and creating jobs, despite making extensive fiscal and business sector reforms. Official unemployment remains high at 24.6% (2015, Q4), but may be overstated based on the existence of an extensive gray market that is not captured by official statistics. In the wake of the global economic downturn, North Macedonia has experienced decreased foreign direct investment, lowered credit availability, and a large trade deficit. However, as a result of conservative fiscal policies and a sound financial system, in 2010 the country credit rating improved slightly to BB+ and was kept at that level in 2011. Macroeconomic stability has been maintained by a prudent monetary policy, which keeps the domestic currency pegged against the euro. As a result, GDP growth was modest, but positive, in 2010 and 2011, and inflation was under control. Latest data from North Macedonia's State Statistical Office show that overall, output for 2012 dropped by 6.6 percent compared to 2011.
Real GDP in the first half of 2011 increased by 5.2%. This robust growth was mainly driven by 23.6% growth in the construction sector; 13.2% in mining, quarrying, and manufacturing; 12.4% in wholesale and retail trade; and 4.2% in transport and communication services. Industrial output in the first 8 months of 2011 was 7.5% higher than in the same period of 2010. Low public and external debt and a comfortable level of foreign exchange reserves allowed for further relaxation of monetary policy, with the reference interest rate of the Central Bank decreasing to 4%. Due to rising prices for energy, fuel, and food on international markets, inflation increased in the first half of 2011, but later decreased to an annualized rate of 3.4% at the end of September. The official unemployment rate dropped to 24.6% in the fourth quarter of 2015, but remained one of the highest in Europe. Many people work in the gray economy, and many experts estimate North Macedonia's actual unemployment is lower.
The government budget has generally kept within projections. The budget deficit at the end of August 2011 reached about 2% of GDP, and fiscal authorities seemed committed to keeping it under the projected target of 2.5% of GDP by the end of the year. In addition to 220 million euros (approx. $298 million) drawn from an IMF Precautionary Credit Line (PCL) in March, financing mostly came from domestic borrowing. However, by the end of the year a financing gap remained of about 50 million to 60 million euros (approx. $67 million to $81 million), which the government plans to cover by borrowing from international capital markets, supported by a policy-based guarantee by the World Bank. The central government's public debt remained low at 26% of GDP, but represents a gradual increase from previous years. Despite lowering the Central Bank bills rate, the Central Bank has not changed liquidity indicators for banks or the reserve requirement since 2009, curbing credit growth to 7.5% in the first three-quarters of 2011. Nikola Gruevski says the government will pay off its entire debt to the private sector by February 2013 in order to improve the economy's overall liquidity.
North Macedonia's external trade struggled in 2010 due to the slow recovery from the economic crisis of its main trading partners, particularly EU members. Starting from a very low base, export growth in the first 8 months of 2011 reached 41.7%, topping import growth of 36.8%. The trade deficit has widened to 18.3% of GDP, approaching the end-year target of 21.9% of GDP. At the same time, the current account balance deficit significantly improved and the end-year projection was revised upward to 5.5% of GDP. This was due primarily to a 4.4% higher inflow of current transfers, mostly during the summer, and came despite a poor level of foreign direct investment (FDI) of only $237.2 million by end-July 2011. Foreign currency reserves remained at about $2.6 billion, a level that comfortably covers 4 months of imports and about 110% of the country's short-term debt.
In October 2010, the World Bank Board of Directors approved a new Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) with North Macedonia for the period 2011-2014. This CPS will provide the country assistance of about $100 million in funding for the first 2 years to improve competitiveness, strengthen employability and social protection, and increase the use of sustainable energy. This assistance also includes a commitment of $30 million in direct budget support in the form of a policy-based guarantee by the World Bank to the government to facilitate its access to financing from international capital markets, a process that had been started as of November 2011.
North Macedonia became the first country eligible for the IMF’s Precautionary Credit Line in January 2011. This program gives North Macedonia a line of credit worth 475 million euros (about $675 million) over 2 years, intended to be accessed only in case of need brought about by external shocks. The credit line was approved after extensive consultations with the IMF in October and December 2010. The IMF expects that there will be no additional withdrawals from the PCL.
North Macedonia has the best economic freedom in the region, according to the 2012 Index of Economic Freedom, released in January, 2012 by the conservative U.S. think tank Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal.
North Macedonia remains committed to pursuing membership in the European Union (EU) and NATO. It became a full World Trade Organization (WTO) member in April 2003. Following a 1997 cooperation agreement with the EU, North Macedonia signed a Stabilization and Association Agreement with the EU in April 2001, giving North Macedonia duty-free access to European markets. In December 2005, it moved a step forward, obtaining candidate country status for EU accession. North Macedonia has had a foreign trade deficit since 1994, which reached a record high of $2.873 billion in 2008, or 30.2% of GDP. Total trade in 2010 (imports plus exports of goods and services) was $8.752 billion, and the trade deficit amounted to $2.149 billion, or 23.4% of GDP. In the first 8 months of 2011, total trade was $7.470 billion and the trade deficit was $1.778 billion. A significant 56.5% of North Macedonia's total trade was with EU countries. North Macedonia's major trading partners are Germany, Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Russia, and Italy. In 2010, total trade between North Macedonia and the United States was $116.6 million, and in the first 8 months of 2011 it was $65 million. U.S. meat, mainly poultry, and electrical machinery and equipment have been particularly attractive to North Macedonia importers. Principal Macedonian exports to the United States are tobacco, apparel, iron, and steel.
North Macedonia has bilateral free trade agreements with Ukraine, Turkey, and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA—Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein). Bilateral agreements with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Rep. of Kosovo, and Moldova were replaced by membership in the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA). North Macedonia also has concluded an "Agreement for Promotion and Protection of Foreign Direct Investments" with Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Belarus, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Egypt, Iran, Italy, India, Spain, Serbia, Montenegro, People’s Republic of China, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Turkey, Ukraine, Hungary, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Croatia, Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Sweden.
Unemployment is a continuing problem in the Republic's economy where a large percentage of the Republic's qualified labor force cannot find work. Many Macedonians lost their jobs with the collapse of Yugoslavia. As a result, national unemployment was above 35% (37.30% in 2005), but in recent years that number has dropped to 16.6% (2019), with population below the poverty line also dropping from 30.4% (2011) to 21.5% (2015), it is reasonable to assume that based on the trend over the past few years, further declines are likely for both unemployment and poverty. Full-time employment has risen steadily over the last few years, with part-time employment trending slightly downward over the same period resulting in an overall increase to employment, wages increased sharply after 2008, with steady increases continuing into 2016
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Telecommunications in North Macedonia
Telecommunications in North Macedonia include radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet.
Television is North Macedonia's most popular news medium. Most private media are tied to political or business interests and state media tend to support the government. Public broadcast networks face stiff competition from commercial stations, which dominate the ratings. A European Union sponsored report says that with scores of TV and radio networks, the market is overcrowded and many local broadcasters are struggling to survive financially.
The combined fixed-line and mobile-cellular telephone subscribership was about 130 per 100 persons in 2012. Competition from mobile-cellular phones has led to a drop in fixed-line telephone subscriptions.
The United States Agency for International Development sponsored a project called "Macedonia Connects" which in 2006 helped to make Macedonia the first all-broadband wireless country in the world, where Internet access is available to virtually anyone with a wireless-enabled computer. Wireless access is available to about 95 percent of Macedonians, even those living in remote sheepherding mountain villages where people don't have phones. The Ministry of Education and Sciences reported that all 461 primary and secondary schools were connected to the Internet. An Internet Service Provider (On.net), created a MESH Network to provide WIFI services in the 11 largest cities/towns in the country.
There are no government restrictions on access to the Internet or credible reports that the government monitors e-mail or Internet chat rooms without judicial oversight. Individuals and groups engage in the peaceful expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail.
The constitution provides for freedom of speech and press; however, the government does not always respect these rights in practice. The law prohibits speech that incites national, religious, or ethnic hatred, and provides penalties for violations. In November 2012 the defamation, libel and slander laws were decriminalized. Editors and media owners expressed concerns that steep fines under the revised law would cause self-censorship. The law prohibits arbitrary interference with privacy, family, home, or correspondence, and the government generally respects these prohibitions in practice.
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Transport in North Macedonia
The following is a summary of the transport system of the Republic of North Macedonia.
"total:"
(699 km (437 miles) of open track and of station/industrial track)
"standard gauge:"
"note:"
a new extension of the Kumanovo-Beljakovci line to the Bulgarian border is under construction.
Restructuring of national railway MZ into infrastructure and operating companies completed in July 2007.
228 km of motorways (2008)
The main network consists of 7 corridors, a good length of which already have motorways.
A-1
Tabanovce - Kumanovo - Miladinovci - Petrovec - Veles - Gradsko - Negotino - Demir Kapija - Gevgelija
A-2
Kumanovo - Kriva Palanka - Deve Bair
A-3
Petrovec - (through inner)Skopje - Stenkovec - [Blace]
A-4
Miladinovci - Skopje - Tetovo - Gostivar - Kičevo - Struga - K'afasan
A-5
Ohrid - Resen - Bitola - Prilep - Veles - Štip - Kočani - Delčevo
A-6
Štip - Radoviš - Strumica - Novo Selo
A-7
Debar - Kičevo - Makedonski Brod - Prilep - Kavadarci - Negotino - Radoviš
The first motorway in the country was the Kumanovo-Petrovec section of the A-1, opened for traffic in 1979 as part of the Brotherhood and Unity Highway which linked Central Europe to Athens.
In 2008 the country had of motorways, with additional under construction and the beginning of works on (the Demir Kapija - Smokvica section of A-1) being postponed for 2009.
In 2008 the government also carried out an ambitious public tender for giving concessions for of motorways. The outcome will be known in 2009.
The E-road network in North Macedonia consists of:
E65
E75
E852
E871
The traffic signs adhere to the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals.
Lights must be on all the time, seatbelts are mandatory for passengers in the front and drivers are forbidden to speak on a mobile phone while driving.
The general speed limits are:
None.
Lake transport (tourist and recreational boats) only, on the Greek and Albanian borders.
Oil (2004)
Gas (2004)
North Macedonia has no sea access.
There are marinas for mostly recreational traffic on Ohrid Lake and other natural and artificial lakes.
Air transport in North Macedonia began after the end of the First World War, when airmail traffic route was created between Novi Sad–Belgrade–Niš–Skoplje. Later, the Yugoslav flag carrier Aeroput inaugurated in 1930 a regular scheduled flight between Belgrade and Thessaloniki with a stop in Skopje airfield. Later, in 1933, Aeroput extended the route to Athens, while in 1935 Skopje was linked to Niš, Bitola, and Podujevo in 1936.
After the end of Second World War, passenger and cargo air transport reestablished, Aeroput was rebranded as JAT Yugoslav Airlines, and routes linking Belgrade, through Skopje, to Athens and Istanbul, using a Douglas DC-3, were inaugurated. During SFRY period JAT linked Skopje with Belgrade and other domestic destinations, but through Belgrade passengers from Skopje were able to catch connecting flights to all five continents. In the 1980s the Skopje airport was majorly expanded, and by late 1980s and early 1990s several companies with hub in Skopje were created, such as Palair, Avioimpex, Air Vardar, and others we created. After independence of North Macedonia, most became flag-carriers of the newly-independent country.
Beside Skopje, in North Macedonia, during second half of the 20th century, Ohrid airport was also developed, starting with the opening of regular scheduled flights between Belgrade–Skopje–Ohrid during the 1960s. Until 1990 charted flights were also inaugurated linking Ohrid with international destinations.
17 (2002 est.)
"total:"
11
8,000 to 9,999 ft:
2
under 3,000 ft:
8 (2000 est.)
"total:"
6
3,000 to 4,999 ft:
3
under 3,000 ft:
3 (2000 est.)
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Army of North Macedonia
The Army of the Republic of North Macedonia ( [АРCМ]) is a defense force consisting of an army and air force; it is responsible for defending the sovereignty and territorial integrity of North Macedonia. Since 2005, it is a fully professional defense force compatible with NATO standards.
The national defence policy and doctrine are determined and based upon the following basic security policy goals of North Macedonia:
Its security policy aims to accomplish the following goals:
Starting out from the security policy provisions and goals, the defence policy of North Macedonia is based upon the following principles:
The political defence strategy of North Macedonia is based upon:
North Macedonia maintains a defensive potential and combat readiness of its Armed Forces which function as a deterring factor in case of a potential aggression in accordance with its capabilities and international arrangements.
In accordance with the Article 123 of the Constitution of North Macedonia, no one in the state has the right to declare capitulation. Therefore, the defence system of North Macedonia is based on the determination to give resistance by use of an armed force against any possible aggression and for a defensive combat on the whole territory. For that purpose, the defence system is responsible to provide conditions so that all of the state authorities and institutions function and conditions for joining the collective defence and security systems as a protection of the independence and sovereignty are provided.
North Macedonia could maintain all the guarantees for its security through the collective defence and security systems. That is why North Macedonia supports the reinforcement of these collective systems and determines itself to actively participate in these systems and to cooperate with regard to the construction of the new European security architecture based upon NATO, OSCE and WEU.
To fulfill these principles and strategic goals, the defence system of North Macedonia is a completed with the peacetime and warfare organisation, the basic development goals, the preparations and the use of the Armed Forces as well as the full civilian control over the Armed Forces. The defence system comprises the whole defence potential of the country: civilians, state authorities, civil protection forces, local self-management, public institutions and services and enterprises of special significance for the defence.
The preparations for a successful defence are conducted during peacetime. These include preparations of the state authorities; preparations and training of the Armed Forces and their deployment on the territory of North Macedonia; preparation of the public institutions and the local self-management; preparations of the civil population and participation in joint exercises and other forms of co-operation with the PfP and NATO member countries.
National Command Management
The management and the procedures in the field of defence of North Macedonia are defined by the Constitution, the Defence Law and by the responsibilities of the executive and judicial authorities.
The commanding with the Armed Forces is based upon the uniformity in command when using the forces and the resources, and the responsibility to execute the decisions and the orders of the one that is superior in command.
The President passes the defence plan and strategy, the decisions for readiness conducting, organisation and formation structure of the Army, passes documents on development, decision on mobilization etc.
The President at the same time is the Chairman of the Security Council of North Macedonia. The Security Council considers all the defence and security related issues of North Macedonia and makes recommendations to the Parliament and to the Government.
The Parliament of North Macedonia supervises the competence of the Government with regard to the defence, it passes decisions on the existing of a direct threat from a war, declares warfare situation and peace and passes the defence budget.
The Parliamentary Interior Policy and Defence Commission has similar responsibilities.
The Government of North Macedonia has the following responsibilities: proposes the defence plan, the defence budget etc.
The Ministry of Defence develops the defence strategy and works out the assessment of the possible threats and risks. The MOD is also responsible for the defence system, training, readiness of the Armed Forces, the equipment and the development and it proposes the defence budget, etc.
In 2008, the Macedonian army had roughly 8,000 soldiers.
The then-Republic of Macedonia began its participation in the NATO-led ISAF operation in August 2002, with the allocation of two officers to the Turkish contingent. On 8 September, independence day of the Republic of Macedonia, the Macedonian flag was flown for the first time in Kabul. In March 2003, the Army of the Republic of Macedonia increased its contribution in the ISAF mission by sending one section from the 2nd Infantry Brigade as part of the German contingent. As a result of the successful execution of the mission and the high marks received for participation in ISAF, from August 2004 until the end of 2006, the ARM participated with one mechanized infantry platoon from the Leopard unit. At the same time, in August 2005 medical personnel was sent in ISAF as part of the Combined Medical Team in the A3 format (Macedonia, Albania, Croatia), which successfully carried out tasks at the Kabul airport, firstly in the composition of the Greek Field Hospital, and later in the composition of the Czech Field Hospital.
Based on the assessments of the Alliance in the part of the declared units from the ARM, which achieved the required strict standards in the field of training and operational procedures, and in line with the Operational Capabilities Concept (OCC), the ARM in June 2006 sent also one mechanized infantry company, part of the first mechanized infantry brigade, in the composition of the British contingent in ISAF. The trust shown from the United Kingdom towards the ninety "Scorpions" from the first infantry brigade, was justified in full.
The high marks from the highest command structures for the work of the unit as well as the learned lessons are only an imperative for continuing the successful mission. In the second rotation of the company for securing the ISAF command, the Republic of Macedonia increased the participation from ninety to one hundred and twenty seven participants, and from January 2008 it sent three staff officers in the ISAF Command in Kabul.
As a support to the efforts for self-sustainability of the Afghanistan National Army (ANA), beginning from March 2008, the Republic of Macedonia sent two soldiers (one officer and one NCO) as part of the Combined Multinational Operational Mentoring and Liaison Team (OMLT) in Mazar-i-Sharif while, beginning from December 2008, in cooperation with the Kingdom of Norway, a Macedonian medical team is included through one Surgical team in the organizational structure of the surgical unit of the Norwegian Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Meymanah, Afghanistan.
North Macedonia has reaffirmed its strategic commitment for attaining membership to the EU by its resolute political commitment to support the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CSFP) and by declaring a concrete contribution to the civilian and military operations in the framework of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP).
The participation of the then-Republic of Macedonia in the EU crisis management military operation Althea in Bosnia and Herzegovina marked the first in the series of concrete and substantial contributions that the country provided in the framework of the civilian and military CSDP operations aimed at enhancing the EU capacities.
The Agreement with the EU for its participation in Althea was signed on 3 July 2006, in Brussels. The contribution of the Republic of Macedonia to the EU operation Althea has confirmed its progress from a consumer of the first EU military operation (Concordia 2003) into an active contributor to the CSDP (Althea 2006).
The country's first contribution to an EU-led operation began in July 2006, by declaring a helicopter detachment, consisting of two Mi-8/17 helicopters and 21crew.
In November 2006, the Republic of Macedonia enhanced its own contribution to the EU operation Althea in Bosnia and Herzegovina by declaring a medical team composed of 10 personnel for providing Role 1 medical support in Camp Butmir.
With the political consensus of all political entities in the RM as well as the overall Macedonian public in terms of the support of the Coalition in the "fight against terrorism", the Republic of Macedonia took active participation by sending its units in the Iraqi Freedom Mission. Based on all legal authorizations, the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia adopted decisions for sending its units to the Iraqi Freedom Mission in the period between June 2003 and December 2008 for each mission separately every 6 months during the term of the mission. The Mission started by sending two officers in the US Central Command in Tampa, in March 2003. Upon the completion of the major combat operations, the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime, and the adoption of Resolution 1546 of the United Nations Security Council, in June 2003 on sending a special task platoon that executed the tasks as part of the 4th infantry division of the Multi-National Force Iraq. In 2008, participation in the Iraqi Freedom Mission was increased by an additional platoon. A total of 11 rotations were conducted between June 2003 and December 2008. The eleventh rotation was the last, which completed participation in the Iraqi Mission. The overall number of personnel that participated in this mission is 490.
Having in mind the priorities in the part of logistics not only in national terms, but even more in proportion with the requirements and requests of the Alliance, the Host Nation Support Coordination Centre began to work in April 2005 as part of the NATO HQ in Skopje, a project implemented for the first time with a member nation from the Partnership for Peace. The project at the beginning was implemented on proposal of General Blease, who at that time was the Commander of NATO forces in Skopje. At the beginning, the project included 11 officers from the ARM, who successfully completed the training for the obligations related to giving support from the host nation. Promoting the personal professionalism and achievements, in 2006 these officers became the basis of the Coordination Centre, which gradually began the preparations for undertaking the tasks for support to KFOR.
In June 2007, having in mind the large meaning and the projected goals, the Coordination Centre was included in the formation of the Logistics Support Command in the General Staff of the ARM. In this manner as an addition to the participation in the mission in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Lebanon, the ARM participates also in the mission for support to Kosovo.
Macedonia participated in the peacekeeping mission of the United Nations in Lebanon, UNIFIL.
The security and prosperity in global terms depend more and more on the effective multilateral system. The strategic partnership with the Organization of the United Nations, whose Treaty represents the fundamental framework of the international relations, are the priority of the European Union and NATO on the international security scene. Hence, the contribution of the Republic of Macedonia in the military part with respect to the missions led by the Organization of the United National is a confirmation of the effective membership of the Republic of Macedonia in the Organization and its strategic determinations.
The primary arm of the military in North Macedonia is the Army of the Republic of North Macedonia (АРCМ); it is commanded by the Minister of Defense through the Chief of the General Staff (CGS). Two Deputy CGS positions include the Deputy CGS for planning, operations and readiness, under whom operates the General Staff of the ARM, and the Deputy CGS for civil-military cooperation.
Controls and co-ordinates the Mechanized Infantry, Aviation and Logistics Support Brigades
It plays the key role in securing the safety and unity of the territory of the country. The army is divided into the rapid reaction force and strategic reserve forces. The rapid reaction forces represent the main active combat capability of the military and consist of the 1st Mechanized Infantry Brigade. The strategic reserve forces provide reserve brigades that can be called up in times of emergency.
Air Warfare and Air Defence of North Macedonia has an important role as air support element of ground forces and in enhancing flight safety. One of the main goals of the Aviation Brigade is to build up an air surveillance system, which will be the cornerstone of the air traffic safety and airspace control. The air component is made up by the Aviation and the Air Defense Forces. It is located in Skopje International Airport (near Skopje)
Special Operations Regiment, is the main command for Special Units of the Army of Republic of North Macedonia. Under the command of the Special Operations Regiment are, The Special Forces Battalion "Wolves" and The Rangers Battalion as well as a Regimental Headquarters Company and Logistical Support Company.
Special Forces Battalion "Wolves" was formed in 1994. It consists of a Headquarters and an undisclosed number of Special Forces detachments and specializes in covert actions, Foreign Internal Defence assistance, Special Reconnaissance, Counter Terrorist operations, and Drug interdiction tasks. Its members wear the Maroon Beret.
The Rangers Battalion was formed in 2004. It consists of a Headquarters and 3 Reconnaissance and Direct Action Companies, its members wear the Ranger Green Beret. The Rangers Battalion is well respected by its allies and is continually preparing for success in conducting its missions. Since 2004 the unit has gone through an intensive development period and has put maximum effort into improving its operative ability and its readiness to manage all challenges of modern time conflicts.
The Mission of Special Operations Regiment is to provide fully organized, trained and equipped units to perform special operations and conventional specific operations, independently or in cooperation with other units of the Army and other coalition forces, in all weather and land conditions during peace, crisis and war and to support peace and conflict prevention as part of overall efforts to support internal security and foreign policy of the Republic of North Macedonia.
Formed in 2001, the Logistics Command oversees all combat service support operations, and controls the Land Forces Logistic Base and the Military Hospital.
Mission:
Planning, organizing, coordinating and executing logistical support to commands and units of the Army of the Republic of North Macedonia, of level II and III.
Tasks:
1. Planning, organizing, coordinating and executing logistical support in the following functional areas:
2. Management with materials of all classes of supply for the commands and units of the Army
3. Storage and maintenance of material supplies for ARM according to specified criteria
4. Strengthening the logistics capacity of the Army in conducting training, work in field conditions, combat engagement and participation in missions
5. Coordinating support of allied forces in transit or maintain in the territory of the Republic of North Macedonia
6. Execution of logistical support for the administrative bodies and bodies of local self-governments, organizations, associations, etc. (in special circumstances and for special orders and instructions)
Chief of General Staff include ELINT Center and the Honor Guard Unit.
Command for Training and Doctrines
Organization, coordination and dimensional task of training the individual soldiers, cadets, NCOs and officers of the active and reserve forces, support collective training commands and units of the Army of the Republic and the development of doctrine and lessons learned in the Army of Republic of North Macedonia.In particular for meeting NATO requirements.
In order to improve the quality of training of the Army in 1996, were established several centers for basic and specialized training of individual soldiers, and collective training was done in the units. Centers were established to train: infantry, artillery, logistics, border guards, military police and reconnaissance.
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Foreign relations of North Macedonia
The foreign relations of North Macedonia since its independence in 1991 have been characterized by the country's efforts to gain membership in international organizations such as NATO and the European Union and to gain international recognition under its constitutional name, overshadowed by a long-standing, dead-locked dispute with neighboring Greece. Greek objections to the country's name have led to it being admitted to the United Nations and several other international fora only under the provisional designation "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia".
North Macedonia became a member state of the United Nations on April 8, 1993, eighteen months after its independence from the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It was referred within the UN as "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia", pending a resolution, to the long-running dispute about the country's name. Unusually, the country's flag was not raised at UN Headquarters when the state joined the UN. It was not until after the country's flag was changed that it was raised at the UN Headquarters. Other international bodies, such as the European Union, European Broadcasting Union, and the International Olympic Committee had adopted the same naming convention. NATO also used that name in official documents but added an explanation on which member countries recognise the constitutional name.
All UN member states currently recognise North Macedonia as a sovereign state. A number of countries recognised the country by its former constitutional name – the Republic of Macedonia – rather than the UN reference, notably four of the five permanent UN Security Council members (the United Kingdom, the United States, Russia, and the People's Republic of China) and over 130 other UN members.
North Macedonia's first post-independence flag caused a major controversy when it was unveiled. The use of the Vergina Sun on the flag was seen by Greece as territorial claim to the northern Greek region of Macedonia, where the golden larnax containing the symbol was unearthed in 1977 during excavations in Vergina by Greek archaeologist Manolis Andronikos. The Greek viewpoint was summed up in an FAQ circulated on the Internet in the late 1990s:
The Vergina Sun, claimed by Greece as an exclusive state symbol, was removed from the flag under an agreement reached between the Republic of Macedonia and Greece in September 1995. The Republic agreed to meet a number of Greek demands for changes to its national symbols and constitution, while Greece agreed to establish diplomatic relations with the Republic and end its economic blockade.
North Macedonia's first post-independence constitution, adopted on November 17, 1991 included a number of clauses that Greece interpreted as promoting secessionist sentiment among the Slavophone population of northern Greece, and making irredentist claims on Greek territory. Article 49 of the constitution caused particular concern. It read:
The Greek government interpreted this as a licence for North Macedonia to interfere in Greek internal affairs. Given long-standing Greek sensitivities over the position of the country's minority groups, the government saw this as being the most serious of the three main issues affecting relations between the two countries; the issue of the republic's symbols, by contrast, was seen as being of much less substantive importance, even though it aroused the loudest political controversy. The Greek prime minister at the time, Constantine Mitsotakis, later commented that
The offending articles were removed under the 1995 agreement between the two sides.
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Malawi
Malawi (, or ; or [maláwi]), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast, and Mozambique surrounding on the east, south and southwest. Malawi spans over and has an estimated population of (as of July ). Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa, takes up about a third of Malawi's area. Its capital is Lilongwe, which is also Malawi's largest city; the second largest is Blantyre, the third largest is Mzuzu and the fourth largest is its old capital Zomba. The name Malawi comes from the Maravi, an old name of the Nyanja people that inhabit the area. The country is nicknamed "The Warm Heart of Africa" because of the friendliness of the people.
The part of Africa now known as Malawi was settled by migrating Bantu groups around the 10th century. Centuries later in 1891 the area was colonised by the British. In 1953 Malawi, then known as Nyasaland, a protectorate of the United Kingdom, became a protectorate within the semi-independent Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The Federation was dissolved in 1963. In 1964 the protectorate over Nyasaland was ended and Nyasaland became an independent country under Queen Elizabeth II with the new name Malawi. Two years later it became a republic. Upon gaining independence it became a totalitarian one-party state under the presidency of Hastings Banda, who remained president until 1994. Malawi now has a democratic, multi-party government headed by an elected president, currently Lazarus Chakwera. The country has a Malawian Defence Force that includes an army, a navy and an air wing. Malawi's foreign policy is pro-Western and includes positive diplomatic relations with most countries and participation in several international organisations, including the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), and the African Union (AU).
Malawi is among the world's least-developed countries. The economy is heavily based in agriculture, with a largely rural population that is growing at a rapid rate. The Malawian government depends heavily on outside aid to meet development needs, although this need (and the aid offered) has decreased since 2000. The Malawian government faces challenges in building and expanding the economy, improving education, healthcare, environmental protection, and becoming financially independent amidst widespread unemployment. Since 2005, Malawi has developed several programs that focus on these issues, and the country's outlook appears to be improving, with a rise in the economy, education and healthcare seen in 2007 and 2008.
Malawi has a low life expectancy and high infant mortality. There is a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS, which is a drain on the labour force and government expenditures. There is a diverse population of native peoples, Asians and Europeans, with several languages spoken and an array of religious beliefs. Although there was periodic regional conflict fuelled in part by ethnic divisions in the past, by 2008 it had diminished considerably and the concept of a Malawian nationality had reemerged.
The area of Africa now known as Malawi had a very small population of hunter-gatherers before waves of Bantu peoples began emigrating from the north around the 10th century. Although most of the Bantu peoples continued south, some remained and founded ethnic groups based on common ancestry. By 1500 AD, the tribes had established the Kingdom of Maravi that reached from north of what is now Nkhotakota to the Zambezi River and from Lake Malawi to the Luangwa River in what is now Zambia.
Soon after 1600, with the area mostly united under one native ruler, native tribesmen began encountering, trading with and making alliances with Portuguese traders and members of the military. By 1700, however, the empire had broken up into areas controlled by many individual ethnic groups. The Arab slave trade reached its height in the mid-
1800s, when approximately 20,000 people were enslaved and considered to be carried yearly from Nkhotakota to Kilwa where they were sold.
Missionary and explorer David Livingstone reached Lake Malawi (then Lake Nyasa) in 1859 and identified the Shire Highlands south of the lake as an area suitable for European settlement. As the result of Livingstone's visit, several Anglican and Presbyterian missions were established in the area in the 1860s and 1870s, the African Lakes Company Limited was established in 1878 to set up a trade and transport concern working closely with the missions, and a small mission and trading settlement was established at Blantyre in 1876 and a British Consul took up residence there in 1883. The Portuguese government was also interested in the area so, to prevent Portuguese occupation, the British government sent Harry Johnston as British consul with instructions to make treaties with local rulers beyond Portuguese jurisdiction.
In 1889, a British protectorate was proclaimed over the Shire Highlands, which was extended in 1891 to include the whole of present-day Malawi as the British Central Africa Protectorate. In 1907, the protectorate was renamed Nyasaland, a name it retained for the remainder of its time under British rule. In a prime example of what is sometimes called the "Thin White Line" of colonial authority in Africa, the colonial government of Nyasaland was formed in 1891. The administrators were given a budget of £10,000 (1891 nominal value) per year, which was enough to employ ten European civilians, two military officers, seventy Punjab Sikhs and eighty-five Zanzibar porters. These few employees were then expected to administer and police a territory of around 94,000 square kilometres with between one and two million people.
In 1944, the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) was formed by the Africans of Nyasaland to promote local interests to the British government. In 1953, Britain linked Nyasaland with Northern and Southern Rhodesia in what was the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, often called the Central African Federation (CAF), for mainly political reasons. Even though the Federation was semi-independent, the linking provoked opposition from African nationalists, and the NAC gained popular support. An influential opponent of the CAF was Dr. Hastings Banda, a European-trained doctor working in Ghana who was persuaded to return to Nyasaland in 1958 to assist the nationalist cause. Banda was elected president of the NAC and worked to mobilise nationalist sentiment before being jailed by colonial authorities in 1959. He was released in 1960 and asked to help draft a new constitution for Nyasaland, with a clause granting Africans the majority in the colony's Legislative Council.
In 1961, Banda's Malawi Congress Party (MCP) gained a majority in the Legislative Council elections and Banda became Prime Minister in 1963. The Federation was dissolved in 1963, and on 6 July 1964, Nyasaland became independent from British rule and renamed itself Malawi, and that is commemorated as the nation's Independence Day, a public holiday. Under a new constitution, Malawi became a republic with Banda as its first president. The new document also formally made Malawi a one-party state with the MCP as the only legal party. In 1971, Banda was declared president-for-life. For almost 30 years, Banda presided over a rigidly totalitarian regime, which ensured that Malawi did not suffer armed conflict. Opposition parties, including the Malawi Freedom Movement of Orton Chirwa and the Socialist League of Malawi, were founded in exile.
Malawi's economy while Banda was president was often cited as an example of how a poor, landlocked, heavily populated, mineral-poor country could achieve progress in both agriculture and industrial development. While in office, and using his control of the country, Banda constructed a business empire that eventually produced one-third of the country's GDP and employed 10% of the wage-earning workforce.
Under pressure for increased political freedom, Banda agreed to a referendum in 1993, where the populace voted for a multi-party democracy. In late 1993, a presidential council was formed, the life presidency was abolished and a new constitution was put into place, effectively ending the MCP's rule. In 1994 the first multi-party elections were held in Malawi, and Banda was defeated by Bakili Muluzi (a former Secretary General of the MCP and former Banda Cabinet Minister). Re-elected in 1999, Muluzi remained president until 2004, when Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika was elected. Although the political environment was described as "challenging", it was stated in 2009 that a multi-party system still existed in Malawi. Multiparty parliamentary and presidential elections were held for the fourth time in Malawi in May 2009, and President Mutharika was successfully re-elected, despite charges of election fraud from his rival.
President Mutharika was seen by some as increasingly autocratic and dismissive of human rights, and in July 2011 protests over high costs of living, devolving foreign relations, poor governance and a lack of foreign exchange reserves erupted. The protests left 18 people dead and at least 44 others suffering from gunshot wounds. In April 2012, Mutharika died of a heart attack; the presidential title was taken over by former Vice-President Joyce Banda.
In 2014 Joyce Banda lost elections (coming third) and was replaced by Peter Mutharika, the brother of ex-President Mutharika.
Malawi is a democratic, multi-party government, currently under the leadership of Lazarus Chakwera The current constitution was put into place on 18 May 1995. The branches of the government consist of executive, legislative and judicial. The executive includes a president who is both chief of state and head of government, first and second vice presidents and a cabinet. The president and vice president are elected together every five years. A second vice president may be appointed by the president if so chosen, although they must be from a different party. The members of the cabinet are appointed by the president and can be from either inside or outside of the legislature.
The legislative branch consists of a unicameral National Assembly of 193 members who are elected every five years, and although the Malawian constitution provides for a Senate of 80 seats, one does not exist in practice. If created, the Senate would provide representation for traditional leaders and a variety of geographic districts, as well as special interest groups including the disabled, youth and women. There are currently nine political parties, with the Democratic Progressive Party acting as the ruling party, it is in an unofficial coalition with United Democratic Front. The Malawi Congress Party currently led by Reverend Lazarus Chakwera is the main opposition party. Suffrage is universal at 18 years of age, and the central government budget for 2009/2010 is $1.7 billion.
The independent judicial branch is based upon the English model and consists of a Supreme Court of Appeal, a High Court divided into three sections (general, constitutional and commercial), an Industrial Relations Court and Magistrates Courts, the last of which is divided into five grades and includes Child Justice Courts. The judicial system has been changed several times since Malawi gained independence in 1964. Conventional courts and traditional courts have been used in varying combinations, with varying degrees of success and corruption.
Malawi is composed of three regions (the Northern, Central, and Southern regions), which are divided into 28 districts, and further into approximately 250 traditional authorities and 110 administrative wards. Local government is administered by central government-appointed regional administrators and district commissioners. For the first time in the multi-party era, local elections took place on 21 November 2000, with the UDF party winning 70% of the available seats. There was scheduled to be a second round of constitutionally mandated local elections in May 2005, but these were cancelled by the government.
In February 2005, President Mutharika split with the United Democratic Front and began his own party, the Democratic Progressive Party, which had attracted reform-minded officials from other parties and won by-elections across the country in 2006. In 2008, President Mutharika had implemented reforms to address the country's major corruption problem, with at least five senior UDF party members facing criminal charges. In 2012, Malawi was ranked 7th of all countries in sub-Saharan Africa in the Ibrahim Index of African Governance, an index that measures several variables to provide a comprehensive view of the governance of African countries. Although the country's governance score was higher than the continental average, it was lower than the regional average for southern Africa. Its highest scores were for safety and rule of law, and its lowest scores were for sustainable economic opportunity, with a ranking of 47th on the continent for educational opportunities. Malawi's governance score had improved between 2000 and 2011. Malawi held its most recent elections in May 2019, with President Peter Mutharika winning re-election over challengers Lazarus Chakwera, Atupele Muluzi, and Saulos Chilima.
Malawi is divided into 28 districts within three regions:
Former President Hastings Banda established a pro-Western foreign policy that continued into early 2011. It included good diplomatic relationships with many Western countries. The transition from a one-party state to a multi-party democracy strengthened Malawian ties with the United States. Significant numbers of students from Malawi travel to the US for schooling, and the US has active branches of the Peace Corps, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Agency for International Development in Malawi. Malawi maintained close relations with South Africa throughout the Apartheid era, which strained Malawi's relationships with other African countries. Following the collapse of apartheid in 1994, diplomatic relationships were made and maintained into 2011 between Malawi and all other African countries. In 2010, however, Malawi's relationship with Mozambique became strained, partially due to disputes over the use of the Zambezi River and an inter-country electrical grid. In 2007, Malawi established diplomatic ties with China, and Chinese investment in the country has continued to increase since then, despite concerns regarding treatment of workers by Chinese companies and competition of Chinese business with local companies. In 2011, relations between Malawi and the United Kingdom were damaged when a document was released in which the British ambassador to Malawi criticised President Mutharika. Mutharika expelled the ambassador from Malawi, and in July 2011, the UK announced that it was suspending all budgetary aid because of Mutharika's lack of response to criticisms of his government and economic mismanagement. On 26 July 2011, the United States followed suit, freezing a US$350 million grant, citing concerns regarding the government's suppression and intimidation of demonstrators and civic groups, as well as restriction of the press and police violence.
Malawi has been seen as a haven for refugees from other African countries, including Mozambique and Rwanda, since 1985. These influxes of refugees have placed a strain on the Malawian economy but have also drawn significant inflows of aid from other countries. Donors to Malawi include the United States, Canada, Germany, Iceland, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, the UK and Flanders (Belgium), as well as international institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the European Union, the African Development Bank and UN organisations.
Malawi is a member of several international organisations including the Commonwealth, the UN and some of its child agencies, the IMF, the World Bank, the African Union and the World Health Organization. Malawi tends to view economic and political stability in southern Africa as a necessity, and advocates peaceful solutions through negotiation. The country was the first in southern Africa to receive peacekeeping training under the African Crisis Response Initiative.
, international observers noted issues in several human rights areas. Excessive force was seen to be used by police forces, security forces were able to act with impunity, mob violence was occasionally seen, and prison conditions continued to be harsh and sometimes life-threatening. However, the government was seen to make some effort to prosecute security forces who used excessive force. Other legal issues included limits on free speech and freedom of the press, lengthy pretrial detentions, and arbitrary arrests and detentions. Societal issues found included violence against women, human trafficking, and child labour. Corruption within the government is seen as a major issue, despite the Malawi Anti-Corruption Bureau's (ACB) attempts to reduce it. The ACB appears to be successful at finding and prosecuting low level corruption, but higher level officials appear to be able to act with impunity. Corruption within security forces is also an issue. Malawi had one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world. In 2015 Malawi raised the legal age for marriage from 15 to 18. Other issues that have been raised are lack of adequate legal protection of women from sexual abuse and harassment, very high maternal mortality rate, and abuse related to accusations of witchcraft.
, homosexuality has been illegal in Malawi. In one 2010 case, a couple perceived as homosexual faced extensive jail time when convicted. The convicted pair, sentenced to the maximum of 14 years of hard labor each, were pardoned two weeks later following the intervention of United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. In May 2012, then-President Joyce Banda pledged to repeal laws criminalizing homosexuality.
The status of women throughout the world, including Malawi, is measured using a wide range of indices which cover areas of social, economic, and political contexts. Focusing primarily on the time period between 2010 and the current day, the status of women in Malawi will be analyzed through a range of statistical indices.
The current social status of women in Malawi is effectively estimated through indices such as female access to schooling, maternal mortality rate, and life expectancy of women from birth. These indices offer a wide lens of information on women's rights and life in Malawi. Women's access to schooling in Malawi as an index highlights how within the state, the ratio of male to female students for many age groups and for total students by gender shows women's access to schooling maintains on par with men's access. Female students in Malawi, though, see consistent declines as the age increases, signifying the failure of compulsory education amongst female students in Malawi. The life expectancy of women from birth in Malawi has seen significant growth over the past decade as the life expectancy of women in 2010 was approximately 58 years old whilst the most recent data from 2017 finds that women in Malawi's average life expectancy grew to 66 years. The maternal mortality rate in Malawi which is particularly low even when compared with states at similar points in the development process.
The economic status of women in Malawi are gauged using indices such as the inheritance rights for women, unemployment and labor force participation for females, along with the extent of the wage gap present between men and women in the Malawian economy. The inheritance rights index gauges the ability of women to effectively own and maintain property in comparison with their male counterparts. The current inheritance rights in Malawi are found to be equal in their dispersion between male/female children and for male/female surviving spouses. Contrary to the equality found in inheritance rights in Malawi, labour force participation and unemployment highlight the challenges for female employment in the state. The current state of female labour participation details how a higher percentage of the male population is currently employed despite the female population having a higher total employed population and a very similar unemployment rate. This gap continues with wages in Malawi as the state continues to score towards the bottom of the list when compared to states across the world. Along with their poor international ranking, the state scores poorly when compared to other sub-Saharan countries as the highest ranked sub-Saharan state, Rwanda, scored a 0.791 on a 0-1 scale while Malawi scored 0.664.
The indices used to gauge political status of women include political participation amongst women, access to political institutions, and female seats in the national parliament. The political participation of women in Malawi as an index is effectively captured through a myriad of sources; these sources come to similar conclusions in regards to the political participation of women. The participation of women in the national political structure has been shown to be weaker than their male counterparts due to the normalization of negative stereotypes which women are not expected to be as politically active as men. The female participation in politics is further restricted from national political structures due to the presence of gatekeepers which provide access to the resources needed to win elections and maintain seats in parliament. This limited participation is directly correlated to the limited positions which are occupied by women in the national setup. This setup, despite its commitment to equal positions for men and women, has failed to promote methods for female politicians maintaining their seats in parliament and as a result of said policies, women throughout Malawi are left without the proper structure and resources to maintain their position in the national structure. Despite the limited resources available to these female politicians, the national parliament within Malawi finds reasonable success in appointing female members to seats within the body as over 20% of the seats in parliament are held by women. Despite the limited access and resources widely available for female politicians in Malawi, the state is finding reasonable success in promoting female politicians on the national scene which works in conjunction with the positive trajectory of the social and economic indices to conclude that Malawi should expect continued growth toward gender equality.
Malawi is a landlocked country in southeastern Africa, bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast and Mozambique to the south, southwest and southeast. It lies between latitudes 9° and 18°S, and longitudes 32° and 36°E.
The Great Rift Valley runs through the country from north to south, and to the east of the valley lies Lake Malawi (also called Lake Nyasa), making up over three-quarters of Malawi's eastern boundary. Lake Malawi is sometimes called the Calendar Lake as it is about long and wide. The Shire River flows from the south end of the lake and joins the Zambezi River farther south in Mozambique. The surface of Lake Malawi is located at above sea level, with a maximum depth of , which means the lake bottom is over below sea level at some points.
In the mountainous sections of Malawi surrounding the Rift Valley, plateaus rise generally above sea level, although some rise as high as in the north. To the south of Lake Malawi lie the Shire Highlands, gently rolling land at approximately above sea level. In this area, the Zomba and Mulanje mountain peaks rise to respective heights of .
Malawi's capital is Lilongwe, and its commercial centre is Blantyre with a population of over 500,000 people. Malawi has two sites listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Lake Malawi National Park was first listed in 1984 and the Chongoni Rock Art Area was listed in 2006.
Malawi's climate is hot in the low-lying areas in the south of the country and temperate in the northern highlands. The altitude moderates what would otherwise be an equatorial climate. Between November and April the temperature is warm with equatorial rains and thunderstorms, with the storms reaching their peak severity in late March. After March, the rainfall rapidly diminishes and from May to September wet mists float from the highlands into the plateaus, with almost no rainfall during these months.
Animal life indigenous to Malawi includes mammals such as elephants, hippos, big cats, monkeys, and bats; a great variety of birds including birds of prey, parrots and falcons, waterfowl and large waders, owls and songbirds. Lake Malawi has been described as having "one of the richest lake fish faunas in the world", being the home for some 200 mammal, 650 bird, 30+ mollusc, and 5,500+ plant species.
The ecoregions include tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands of the miombo woodland, dominated by miombo trees; and the Zambezian and mopane woodlands, characterized by the mopane tree; and also flooded grassland providing grassland and swamp vegetation.
There are five , four and two other in Malawi.
Malawi is among the world's least developed countries. Around 85% of the population live in rural areas. The economy is based on agriculture, and more than one-third of GDP and 90% of export revenues come from this. In the past, the economy has been dependent on substantial economic aid from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and other countries. Malawi was ranked the 119th safest investment destination in the world in the March 2011 Euromoney Country Risk rankings.
In December 2000, the IMF stopped aid disbursements due to corruption concerns, and many individual donors followed suit, resulting in an almost 80% drop in Malawi's development budget. However, in 2005, Malawi was the recipient of over US$575 million in aid. The Malawian government faces challenges in developing a market economy, improving environmental protection, dealing with the rapidly growing HIV/AIDS problem, improving the education system, and satisfying its foreign donors that it is working to become financially independent. Improved financial discipline had been seen since 2005 under the leadership of President Mutharika and Financial Minister Gondwe. This discipline has since evaporated as shown by the purchase in 2009 of a private presidential jet followed almost immediately by a nationwide fuel shortage which was officially blamed on logistical problems, but was more likely due to the hard currency shortage caused by the jet purchase. The overall cost to the economy (and healthcare system) is unknown.
In addition, some setbacks have been experienced, and Malawi has lost some of its ability to pay for imports due to a general shortage of foreign exchange, as investment fell 23% in 2009. There are many investment barriers in Malawi, which the government has failed to address, including high service costs and poor infrastructure for power, water, and telecommunications. , it was estimated that Malawi had a GDP (purchasing power parity) of $22.42 billion, with a per capita GDP of $1200, and inflation estimated at around 12.2% in 2017.
Agriculture accounts for 35% of GDP, industry for 19% and services for the remaining 46%. Malawi has one of the lowest per capita incomes in the world, although economic growth was estimated at 9.7% in 2008 and strong growth is predicted by the International Monetary Fund for 2009. The poverty rate in Malawi is decreasing through the work of the government and supporting organisations, with people living under the poverty line decreasing from 54% in 1990 to 40% in 2006, and the percentage of "ultra-poor" decreasing from 24% in 1990 to 15% in 2007.
Many analysts believe that economic progress for Malawi depends on its ability to control population growth.
In January 2015 southern Malawi was devastated by the worst floods in living memory, stranding at least 20,000 people. These floods affected more than a million people across the country, including 336,000 who were displaced, according to UNICEF. Over 100 people were killed and an estimated 64,000 hectares of cropland were washed away.
The economy of Malawi is predominantly agricultural. Over 80% of the population is engaged in subsistence farming, even though agriculture only contributed to 27% of GDP in 2013. The services sector accounts for more than half of GDP (54%), compared to 11% for manufacturing and 8% for other industries, including natural uranium mining. Malawi invests more in agriculture (as a share of GDP) than any other African country: 28% of GDP.
The main agricultural products of Malawi include tobacco, sugarcane, cotton, tea, corn, potatoes, sorghum, cattle and goats. The main industries are tobacco, tea and sugar processing, sawmill products, cement and consumer goods. The industrial production growth rate is estimated at 10% (2009). The country makes no significant use of natural gas. , Malawi does not import or export any electricity, but does import all its petroleum, with no production in country. Beginning in 2006, the country began mixing unleaded petrol with 10% ethanol, produced in-country at two plants, to reduce dependence on imported fuel. In 2008, Malawi began testing cars that ran solely on ethanol, and initial results are promising, and the country is continuing to increase its use of ethanol.
, Malawi exports an estimated US$945 million in goods per year. The country's strong reliance on tobacco places a heavy burden on the economy as world prices decline and the international community increases pressure to limit tobacco production. Malawi's dependence on tobacco is growing, with the product jumping from 53% to 70% of export revenues between 2007 and 2008. The country also relies heavily on tea, sugar and coffee, with these three plus tobacco making up more than 90% of Malawi's export revenue. Because of a rise in costs and a decline in sales prices, Malawi is encouraging farmers away from tobacco towards more profitable crops, including spices such as paprika. The move away from tobacco is further fueled by likely World Health Organisation moves against the particular type of tobacco that Malawi produces, burley leaf. It is seen to be more harmful to human health than other tobacco products. India hemp is another possible alternative, but arguments have been made that it will bring more crime to the country through its resemblance to varieties of cannabis used as a recreational drug and the difficulty in distinguishing between the two types. This concern is especially important because the cultivation of Malawian cannabis, known as Malawi Gold, as a drug has increased significantly. Malawi is known for growing "the best and finest" cannabis in the world for recreational drug use, according to a recent World Bank report, and cultivation and sales of the crop may contribute to corruption within the police force.
Other exported goods are cotton, peanuts, wood products and apparel. The main destination locations for the country's exports are South Africa, Germany, Egypt, Zimbabwe, the United States, Russia and the Netherlands. Malawi currently imports an estimated US$1.625 billion in goods per year, with the main commodities being food, petroleum products, consumer goods and transportation equipment. The main countries that Malawi imports from are South Africa, India, Zambia, Tanzania, the US and China.
In 2006, in response to disastrously low agricultural harvests, Malawi began a programme of fertiliser subsidies, the Fertiliser Input Subsidy Program (FISP) that were designed to re-energise the land and boost crop production. It has been reported that this program, championed by the country's president, is radically improving Malawi's agriculture, and causing Malawi to become a net exporter of food to nearby countries. The FISP fertiliser subsidy programmes ended with President Mutharika's death; the country quickly faced food shortages again, and farmers developed reluctance to purchase fertilisers and other agricultural inputs on the open markets that remained.
In 2016, Malawi was hit by a drought, and in January 2017, the country reported an outbreak of armyworms around Zomba. The moth is capable of wiping out entire fields of corn, the staple grain of impoverished residents. On 14 January 2017, the agriculture minister George Chaponda reported that 2,000 hectares of crop had been destroyed, having spread to nine of twenty-eight districts.
, Malawi has 31 airports, seven with paved runways (two international airports) and 24 with unpaved runways. , the country has of railways, all narrow-gauge, and, as of 2003, of roadways in various conditions, paved and unpaved. Malawi also has of waterways on Lake Malawi and along the Shire River.
, there were 3.952 million mobile phones and 173,500 landline telephones in Malawi. There were 716,400 Internet users in 2009, and 1,099 Internet hosts . there was one government-run radio station and approximately a dozen more owned by private enterprise.
Radio, television and postal services in Malawi are regulated by the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA). Malawi television is improving. The country boasts 20 television stations by 2016 broadcasting on the country's digital network MDBNL e.g.[3] This includes Times Group, Timveni, Adventist, and Beta, Zodiak and CFC. In the past, Malawi's telecommunications system has been named as some of the poorest in Africa, but conditions are improving, with 130,000 land line telephones being connected between 2000 and 2007. Telephones are much more accessible in urban areas, with less than a quarter of land lines being in rural areas.
Malawi devoted 1.06% of GDP to research and development in 2010, according to a survey by the Department of Science and Technology, one of the highest ratios in Africa. This corresponds to $7.8 per researcher (in current purchasing parity dollars).
In 2014, Malawian scientists had the third-largest output in Southern Africa, in terms of articles catalogued in international journals. They published 322 articles in Thomson Reuters' Web of Science (Science Citation Index expanded) that year, almost triple the number in 2005 (116). Only South Africa (9,309) and the United Republic of Tanzania (770) published more in Southern Africa. Malawian scientists publish more in mainstream journals – relative to GDP – than any other country of a similar population size. This is impressive, even if the country's publication density remains modest, with just 19 publications per million inhabitants catalogued in international journals in 2014. The average for sub-Saharan Africa is 20 publications per million inhabitants.
Malawi's first science and technology policy dates from 1991 and was revised in 2002. The "National Science and Technology Policy" of 2002 envisaged the establishment of a National Commission for Science and Technology to advise the government and other stakeholders on science and technology-led development. Although the Science and Technology Act of 2003 made provision for the creation of this commission, it only became operational in 2011, with a secretariat resulting from the merger of the Department of Science and Technology and the National Research Council. The Science and Technology Act of 2003 also established a Science and Technology Fund to finance research and studies through government grants and loans but, , this was not yet operational. The Secretariat of the National Commission for Science and Technology has reviewed the "Strategic Plan for Science, Technology and Innovation" (2011–2015) but, as of early 2015, the revised policy had not yet met with Cabinet approval.
Malawi is conscious of the need to attract more foreign investment to foster technology transfer, develop human capital and empower the private sector to drive economic growth. In 2012, most foreign investment flowed to infrastructure (62%) and the energy sector (33%). The government has introduced a series of fiscal incentives, including tax breaks, to attract more foreign investors. In 2013, the Malawi Investment and Trade Centre put together an investment portfolio spanning 20 companies in the country's six major economic growth sectors, namely:
In 2013, the government adopted a "National Export Strategy" to diversify the country's exports. Production facilities are to be established for a wide range of products within the three selected clusters: oil seed products, sugar cane products and manufacturing. The government estimates that these three clusters have the potential to represent more than 50% of Malawi's exports by 2027. In order to help companies adopt innovative practices and technologies, the strategy makes provision for greater access to the outcome of international research and better information about available technologies; it also helps companies to obtain grants to invest in such technologies from sources such as the country's Export Development Fund and the Malawi Innovation Challenge Fund.
The Malawi Innovation Challenge Fund is a competitive facility, through which businesses in Malawi's agricultural and manufacturing sectors can apply for grant funding for innovative projects with potential for making a strong social impact and helping the country to diversify its narrow range of exports. The first round of competitive bidding opened in April 2014.The fund is aligned on the three clusters selected within the country's "National Export Strategy": oil seed products, sugar cane products and manufacturing. It provides a matching grant of up to 50% to innovative business projects to help absorb some of the commercial risk in triggering innovation. This support should speed up the implementation of new business models and/or the adoption of technologies. The fund is endowed with US$8 million from the United Nations Development Programme and the UK Department for International Development.
Among the notable achievements stemming from the implementation of national policies for science, technology and innovation in recent years are the:
Malawi has a population of over floor(/1e6) million, with a growth rate of 3.32%, according to estimates. The population is forecast to grow to over 45 million people by 2050, nearly tripling the estimated 16 million in 2010. Malawi's estimated 2016 population is, based on most recent estimates, 18,091,575.
Malawi's population is made up of the Chewa, Tumbuka, Yao, Lomwe, Sena, Tonga, Ngoni, and Ngonde native ethnic groups, as well as populations of Asians and Europeans.
The official language is English. Major languages include Chichewa, a language spoken by over 57% of the population, Chinyanja (12.8%), Chiyao (10.1%), and Chitumbuka (9.5%). Other native languages are Malawian Lomwe, spoken by around 250,000 in the southeast of the country; Kokola, spoken by around 200,000 people also in the southeast; Lambya, spoken by around 45,000 in the northwestern tip; Ndali, spoken by around 70,000; Nyakyusa-Ngonde, spoken by around 300,000 in northern Malawi; Malawian Sena, spoken by around 270,000 in southern Malawi; and Tonga, spoken by around 170,000 in the north.
Malawi is a majority Christian country, with a significant Muslim minority. Government surveys indicate that 87% of the country is Christian, with a minority 11.6% Islamic population. The largest Christian groups in Malawi are the Roman Catholic Church, of which 19% of Malawians are adherents, and the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) to which 18% belong. The CCAP is the largest Protestant denomination in Malawi with 1.3 million members. There are smaller Presbyterian denominations like the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Malawi and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Malawi. There are also smaller numbers of Anglicans, Baptists, evangelicals, Seventh-day Adventists, and the Lutherans.
Most of the Muslim population is Sunni, of either the Qadriya or Sukkutu groups, with a few who follow the Ahmadiyya.
Other religious groups within the country include Jehovah's Witnesses (over 95,000),The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with just over 2,000 members in the country at the end of 2015,Rastafarians, Hindus, Baha'is, (0.2%) and around 300 Jews. Atheists make up around 4% of the population, although this number may include people who practice traditional African religions that do not have any gods.
Malawi has central hospitals, regional and private facilities. The public sector offers free health services and medicines, while non-government organisations offers services and medicines for fees. Private doctors offer fee-based services and medicines. Health insurance schemes have been established since 2000. The country has a pharmaceutical manufacturing industry consisting of four privately owned pharmaceutical companies. Malawi's healthcare goal is for "promoting health, preventing, reducing and curing disease, and reducing the occurrence of premature death in the population".
Infant mortality rates are high, and life expectancy at birth is 50.03 years. Abortion is illegal in Malawi, except to save the mother's life. The Penal Code punishes women who seek illegal or clinical abortion with 7 years in prison, and 14 years for those perform the abortion. There is a high adult prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS, with an estimated 980,000 adults (or 9.1% of the population) living with the disease in 2015. There are approximately 27,000 deaths each year from HIV/AIDS, and over half a million children orphaned because of the disease (2015). Approximately 250 new people are infected each day, and at least 70% of Malawi's hospital beds are occupied by HIV/AIDS patients. The high rate of infection has resulted in an estimated 5.8% of the farm labor force dying of the disease. The government spends over $120,000 each year on funerals for civil servants who die of the disease. In 2006, international superstar Madonna started Raising Malawi, a foundation that helps AIDS orphans in Malawi, and also financed a documentary about the hardships experienced by Malawian orphans, called "I Am Because We Are". Raising Malawi also works with the Millennium Villages Project to improve education, health care, infrastructure and agriculture in Malawi.
There is a very high degree of risk for major infectious diseases, including bacterial and protozoal diarrhoea, hepatitis A, typhoid fever, malaria, plague, schistosomiasis, and rabies. Malawi has been making progress on decreasing child mortality and reducing the incidences of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; however, the country has been "performing dismally" on reducing maternal mortality and promoting gender equality. Female genital mutilation (FGM), while not widespread, is practiced in some local communities.
On 23 November 2016, a court in Malawi sentenced an HIV-positive man to two years in prison with forced labour after having sex with 100 women without disclosing his status. Women rights activists asked the government to review the sentence calling it too "lenient". Some of the major health facilities in the country are Blantyre Adventist Hospital, Mwaiwathu Private Hospital, Queen Elizabeth Central and Kamuzu Central Hospitals.
In 1994, free primary education for all Malawian children was established by the government, and primary education has been compulsory since the passage of the Revised Education Act in 2012. As a result, attendance rates for all children have improved, with enrollment rates for primary schools up from 58% in 1992 to 75% in 2007. Also, the percentage of students who begin standard one and complete standard five has increased from 64% in 1992 to 86% in 2006. According to the World Bank, it shows that the youth literacy had also increased from 68% in 2000 to 75% in 2015. This increase is primarily attributed to improved learning materials in schools, better infrastructure and feeding programmes that have been implemented throughout the school system. However, attendance in secondary school falls to approximately 25%, with attendance rates being slightly higher for males. Dropout rates are higher for girls than boys, attributed to security problems during long walks to school, as girls face a higher prevalence of gender-based violence.
Education in Malawi comprises eight years of primary education, four years of secondary school and four years of university. There are four public universities in Malawi: Mzuzu University (MZUNI), Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR), the University of Malawi (UNIMA) and Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST). There are also private universities, such as Livingstonia, Malawi Lakeview, Catholic University of Malawi, Central Christian University, African Bible College, UNICAF University, and MIM. The entry requirement is six credits on the Malawi School Certificate of Education, which is equivalent to O levels.
Malawi maintains a small standing military of approximately 25,000 men, the Malawian Defence Force. It consists of army, navy and air force elements. The Malawi army originated from British colonial units formed before independence, and is now made up of two rifle regiments and one parachute regiment. The Malawi Air Force was established with German help in 1976, and operates a small number of transport aircraft and multi-purpose helicopters. The Malawian Navy has three vessels operating on Lake Malawi, based in Monkey Bay. In 2017, Malawi signed the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
The name "Malawi" comes from the Maravi, a Bantu people who emigrated from the southern Congo around 1400 AD. Upon reaching northern Lake Malawi, the group divided, with one group moving south down the west bank of the lake to become the group known as the Chewa, while the other group, the ancestors of today's Nyanja, moved along the east side of the lake to the southern section of Malawi. Ethnic conflict and continuing migration prevented the formation of a society that was uniquely and cohesively Malawian until the dawn of the 20th century. Over the past century, ethnic distinctions have diminished to the point where there is no significant inter-ethnic friction, although regional divisions still occur. The concept of a Malawian nationality has begun to form around a predominantly rural people who are generally conservative and traditionally nonviolent. The "Warm Heart of Africa" nickname is not due to the hot weather of the country, but due to the kind, loving nature of the Malawian people.
From 1964 to 2010, and again since 2012, the Flag of Malawi is made up of three equal horizontal stripes of black, red and green with a red rising sun superimposed in the center of the black stripe. The black stripe represented the African people, the red represented the blood of martyrs for African freedom, green represented Malawi's ever-green nature and the rising sun represented the dawn of freedom and hope for Africa. In 2010, the flag was changed, removing the red rising sun and adding a full white sun in the center as a symbol of Malawi's economic progress. The change was reverted in 2012.
Its dances are a strong part of Malawi's culture, and the National Dance Troupe (formerly the Kwacha Cultural Troupe) was formed in November 1987 by the government. Traditional music and dances can be seen at initiation rites, rituals, marriage ceremonies and celebrations.
The indigenous ethnic groups of Malawi have a rich tradition of basketry and mask carving, and some of these goods are used in traditional ceremonies still performed by native peoples. Wood carving and oil painting are also popular in more urban centres, with many of the items produced being sold to tourists. There are several internationally recognised literary figures from Malawi, including poet Jack Mapanje, history and fiction writer Paul Zeleza and authors Legson Kayira, Felix Mnthali, Frank Chipasula and David Rubadiri.
Football is the most common sport in Malawi, introduced there during British colonial rule. Its national team has failed to qualify for a World Cup so far, but have made two appearances in the Africa Cup of Nations. Football teams include Mighty Wanderers, Big Bullets, Silver Strikers, Blue Eagles, Civo Sporting, Moyale Barracks and Mighty Tigers. Basketball is also growing in popularity, but its national team is yet to participate in any international competition.
Malawian cuisine is diverse, with tea and fish being popular features of the country's cuisine. Sugar, coffee, corn, potatoes, sorghum, cattle and goats are also important components of the cuisine and economy. Lake Malawi is a source of fish including chambo (similar to bream), usipa (similar to sardines), and mpasa (similar to salmon and kampango). Nsima is a food staple made from ground corn and typically served with side dishes of meat and vegetables. It is commonly eaten for lunch and dinner.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19088
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History of Malawi
The History of Malawi covers the area of present-day Malawi. The region was once part of the Maravi Empire. In colonial times, the territory was ruled by the British, under whose control it was known first as British Central Africa and later Nyasaland. It became part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The country achieved full independence, as Malawi, in 1964. After independence, Malawi was ruled as a one-party state under Hastings Banda until 1994.
In 1991, a hominid jawbone was discovered near Uraha village that was between 2.3 and 2.5 million years old, the oldest evidence of the genus "Homo" ever discovered. Early humans inhabited the vicinity of Lake Malawi 50,000 to 60,000 years ago. Human remains at a site dated about 8000 BCE showed physical characteristics similar to peoples living today in the Horn of Africa. At another site, dated 1500 BCE, the remains possess features resembling San people. These short people with copper coloured skin were known as the Akafula or Batwa. They are responsible for the rock paintings found south of Lilongwe in Chencherere and Mphunzi. To learn more about some of the main archaeology sites in Malawi go to the Archaeology of Malawi page. The original Inhabitants living in Malawi were the Twa and Fula people. They settled in Malawi between 8000 and 2000 BCE, living in small, mobile groups of hunters and gatherers. Bantu-speaking people entered the region during the four first centuries of the "Common Era", bringing Iron metallurgy in Africa and slash-and-burn agriculture. Later waves of Bantu settlement, between the 13th and 15th centuries, displaced or assimilated the earlier Bantu and pre-Bantu populations.
The name Malawi is thought to derive from the word "Maravi". The people of the Maravi Empire were iron workers. Maravi is thought to mean "Flames" and may have come from the sight of many kilns lighting up the night sky. A dynasty known as the Maravi Empire was founded by the Amaravi people in the late 15th century. The Amaravi, who eventually became known as the Chewa (a word possibly derived from a term meaning "foreigner"), migrated to Malawi from the region of the modern-day Republic of Congo to escape unrest and disease. The Chewa attacked the Akafula, who settled in small family clans without a unified system of protection. Using a system of destruction they would later employ in hunting predatory animals, the Chewa hunted down and butchered the Akafula.
Eventually encompassing most of modern Malawi, as well as parts of modern-day Mozambique and Zambia, the Maravi Empire began on the southwestern shores of Lake Malawi. The head of the empire during its expansion was the Kalonga (also spelt Karonga). The Kalonga ruled from his headquarters in Mankhamba. Under the leadership of the Kalonga, sub-chiefs were appointed to occupy and subdue new areas. The empire began to decline during the early 18th century when fighting among the sub-chiefs and the burgeoning slave trade weakened the Maravi Empire's authority.
Initially, the Maravi Empire's economy was largely dependent on agriculture, especially the production of millet and sorghum. It was during the Maravi Empire, sometime during the 16th century, that Europeans first came into contact with the people of Malawi. Under the Maravi Empire, the Chewa had access to the coast of modern-day Mozambique. Through this coastal area, the Chewa traded ivory, iron, and slaves with the Portuguese and Arabs. Trade was enhanced by the common language of Chewa (Nyanja) which was spoken throughout the Maravi Empire.
In 1616 the Portuguese trader Gaspar Bocarro journeyed through what is now Malawi, producing the first European account of the country and its people. The Portuguese were also responsible for the introduction of maize to the region. Maize would eventually replace sorghum as the staple of the Malawian diet. Malawian tribes traded slaves with the Portuguese. These slaves were sent mainly to work on Portuguese plantations in Mozambique or to Brazil.
The decline of the Maravi Empire resulted from the entrance of two powerful groups into the region of Malawi. In the 19th century, the Angoni or Ngoni people and their chief Zwangendaba arrived from the Natal region of modern-day South Africa. The Angoni were part of a great migration, known as the mfecane, of people fleeing from the head of the Zulu Empire, Shaka Zulu. The Ngoni people settled mostly in what is modern-day central Malawi; particularly Ntcheu and parts of Dedza district. However, some groups proceeded north; entering Tanzania and settling around Lake Victoria. But splinter groups broke off and headed back south; settling in modern-day northern Malawi, particularly Mzimba district, where they mixed with another migrant group coming from across Lake Malawi called the Bawoloka. Clearly, the mfecane had a significant impact on Southern Africa. The Angoni adopted Shaka's military tactics to subdue the lesser tribes, including the Maravi, they found along their way. Staging from rocky areas, the Ngoni impis would raid the Chewa (also called Achewa) and plunder food, oxen and women. Young men were drawn in as new fighting forces while older men were reduced to domestic slaves and/or sold off to Arab slave traders operating from the Lake Malawi region.
The second group to take power around this time was the Yao. The Yao were also known by a derogatory term Achawa or Machawa, which is a word used by many people in southern Africa. The author of the "History of the Yao" ("Chiikala ChaWayao"), Yohanna Abdallah argued that it was the Mang'anja who coined the term Achawa in reference to the Yao because the Mang'anja and later on the Makuwa-Lomwe failed to pronounce the proper name of Yao; Edward Alpers states that the term Achawa might have originated from the Lomwe who knew the Yao as a people who ate their own food (anolya achawa). The Yao were richer and more independent than the Makuwa. They came to Malawi from northern Mozambique to escape either from famine or conflict with the Makuwa people who were jealous of the Yao. The factors which caused the Yao to migrate from Yaoland are complicated and need extensive research. One factor is that the Makuwa attacked the Yao due to jealousy. The Makuwa tribe had become enemies of the Yao because of the wealth the Yao were amassing through trading ivory and later on slaves to Arabs from Zanzibar and the Portuguese after the French had introduced sugar plantations on Réunion Island and Mauritius. It was the French who influenced the Sultan of Zanzibar to procure slaves from the hinterland. In due course the Arabs, who had known the Yao before the Portuguese, asked the Yao to go to the interior and bring slaves rather than bringing ivory. The Yao, upon migrating to Malawi in the 1800s, soon began buying slaves from the Chewa and Ngoni. The Yao are recorded to have also attacked them in order to capture prisoners whom they later sold as slaves. It was through David Livingstone the world learnt that the Yao were great slavers who were capturing the Mang'anja. However, Livingstone saw for the first time the Portuguese from Angola capturing slaves in Botswana in 1852. The people of chief Sebetwane in Botswana were being raided by the Portuguese slavers. This was the period before Livingstone came to Malawi in 1859.
In 1859 Livingstone recorded that he had discovered Lake Malawi. The Yao who were already settled by the lake told him that the mass of water he saw was called "Nyasa". Livingstone, who did not know Chiyao, possibly thought that Nyasa was the proper name of the lake. However, the term Nyasa in Chiyao meant the "lake" in English.
Within two years of the discovery of the Lake Nyasa, Livingstone had to review his plans for colonising Malawi. He used the church to start the process of colonising the land. He brought the Universities Mission to Central Africa (U.M.C.A) under Bishop Frederick Mackenzie in 1861 to Magomero. The Yao had already settled in Magomero before 1860 and the Christian missionaries encountered resistance from them. The Yao of Magomero had embraced Islam before the 1860s. Bishop Mackenzie and Livingstone took sides with the Mang'anja who were non-Muslims. Wars erupted between the Yao and Bishop Mackenzie. Livingstone and Bishop Mackenzie shot the Yao, burnt their houses and fields (see "Magomero: The Portrait of an African village"). The wars between the Yao and Livingstone at Magomero in 1861 do not appear clearly in the history textbooks of Malawi.
Work at the University of Malawi (UNIMA) for long time has been studies on how to demolish the Yao history (see The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa (ed.) Leroy Vail). The Magomero wars in 1861 were the first wars encountered in Malawi between Christian missionaries and Yao Muslims. Livingstone and the U.M.C.A were criticized for attacking the Yao. Instead of preaching the gospel the missionaries engaged in politics at Magomero by siding with the Mang'anja. The Yao were regarded as intruders, invaders, and foreigners by the missionaries. The point is that by the 1860s, a number of Yao people had already embraced Islam and it was difficult for the missionaries to convert them. They had already heard the stories of Jesus through the Quranic interpretations during Siyala preachings and they felt insulted to be regarded as uncivilized. Christian missionaries had a tendency to call Africans infidels if they did not convert to Christianity. In the minds of Christian missionaries, all Africans were uncivilized. They came to Africa to civilize the infidels. The missionaries are said to have brought the three Cs to Malawi i.e. Civilisation, Commerce and Christianity. It was the Mang'anja who had not yet embraced Islam before the arrival of the Christian missionaries. However, Islam appeared among the Mang'anja of the Shire valley in the 1500s when the Arabs were trading with the Phiri. Some Africans had already embraced Islam at that period. However, the presence of Arabs along the Zambezi-Shire dwindled after the Portuguese killed and enslaved a number of Muslims. Muslim slaves were taken to Brazil. This was the end of Islamic influence in the Zambezi-Shire valley. The Portuguese had to follow the Muslims from Tete up to Zimbabwe where they uprooted their presence (see Nyasaland Handbook by S.S. Murray, 1932).
When David Livingstone and Bishop Mackenzie came to Magomero in 1861 they found the Yao and the Mang'anja living side by side. The Yao were already civilised at that period. They were dressed in long robes and kofias (skull caps), and were trading with the Rwozi kingdom in Zimbabwe, with Bisa in the Luangwa valley, with the Lunda of Mwata Kazembe of Zambia, and even going to Congo and the east coast. Kilwa and Unguja (Zanzibar) were the Yao lodestars. The Yao travelled extensively in this part of Africa. The long trade expeditions needed people who knew some geography and arithmetic (masoma ga yisabu) in order to do their business transactions. The Yao had already acquired some skills in reading and writing using the Arabic alphabet, building dhows (yombo) along the lake shore, irrigation (matimbe), growing rice, and founding madrassahs and boarding schools (chiwuwo). The Yao were the first, and for a long while, the only group to use firearms, which they bought from Europeans and Arabs, in conflicts with other tribes. With the use of firearms the Yao in southern Malawi helped to defend the Mang'anja, who were being attacked by the Kololo. The Kololo were a people who came to Malawi from chief Sebetwane of Botswana. They were porters of Livingstone. David Livingstone left them in the Shire valley armed with guns which they used to terrorise and kill the Mang'anja in order to usurp the Mang'anja chieftainships of Chibisa and Tengani. Thanks to the Yao, the Mang'anja were not wiped out from the map of Malawi. The Yao even supplied guns to chief Mwase Kasungu of Kasungu district who was being terrorised by the Ngoni followers of chief M'mbelwa of Mzimba. Mwase's guns helped to defend the Chewa from the Ngoni and from wild animals.
In the course of history the Yao were later on depicted as a people who were enslaving the original inhabitants. In fact the Yao were resisting colonisation of Malawi in the name of spreading Christianity, Civilisation and Commerce. After failing to convert the Yao in Magomero in 1861, the Scottish decided to send another group of missionaries. The Free church of Scotland arrived in Mangochi in 1875. The Scots also sent another group of missionaries to convert the Yao Muslims in Kapeni-Blantyre in 1876. Chief Kapeni gave land to the Established Church of Scotland in Blantyre where they built what is known as H.H.I.
In 1875, Chief Mponda, a Yao Muslim, welcomed the Christians to open a mission in Cape Maclear. For six years the missionaries who settled among the Yao in Mangochi, i.e. the Free Church of Scotland, failed to convert Muslims to Christianity. Bishop Robert Laws decided to leave Mangochi and go further north to Tonga and Tumbuka territories. The Tumbuka and the Tonga were being terrorised by the Ngoni impis of chief M'mbelwa of Mzimba (a Zulu word for the body). A good number of the Tumbuka were the slaves of the Ngoni, whom they called Zowa. The Ngoni had already killed one of the Chikulamayembes (Mkwayira the chief of the Tumbuka) and Mjuma along the Runyina river. With this background, the Free Church of Scotland found fertile ground for the gospel. The Tumbuka and the Tonga were living in fear of the Ngoni. By 1881 the missionaries opened a station at Bandawe which was a center of writing and reading in Nkhata Bay. A school was a church and the church was a school. It was a buffer zone between the Ngoni and the Tonga. It acted as a center of protection from the marauding Ngoni impis. The Tongas for the first time embraced western civilization and they became the first people to be literate through English. Some of the teachers of the Tonga were the Nyanja who had embraced Christianity at Cape Maclear in Mangochi. Later on the missionaries went to the Tumbuka, who were also being enslaved by the powerful Ngonis. Robert Laws opened a mission station in Livingstonia near Rumphi in 1894. The Tumbuka sought refuge among the missionaries and embraced Christianity. They became the second tribe to be the most educated in Malawi. It can be observed that by that period the Yao had completely distanced themselves from Christian education. They were still stuck with eastern influence. They were writing and reading in Arabic. It was a blow to the Yao as Arabic education was not recognized in Malawi from 1860s up to modern times. An educated person from the 1870s up to the 1940s was the one who had an encyclopedic knowledge of the Bible, some arithmetic and English. It was from the 1940s when the government took steps to change the image of education in Malawi. Before 1940, education in Malawi was controlled by the Church.
While the Free Church of Scotland in 1875 went to the Yao Muslims of chief Mponda, the Established Church of Scotland in 1876 also went to the Yao Muslim chief Kapeni of Blantyre. Meanwhile, the White Fathers of the Catholic Church in 1889 sought permission to open a mission station in the territory of Chief Mponda of Mangochi. The Yao had built big towns in Mangochi, and the Mpondas and Makanjila had plenty of food which attracted foreigners. The missionaries aimed to convert the Muslims of Kapeni in Blantyre, and the Mpondas and Makanjila in Mangochi. The Yaos were one of the strongest tribes in Malawi. The second were the Ngoni who used the tactics of Shaka Zulu in their fighting.
The failure to convert the Yao Muslims to Christianity contributed to the appearing of the negative history of the Yao people. The Yao socio-economic contribution to Malawi was not recognised, rather history judged them as great slave traders. H. H. Johnson before he came to Malawi had already planned to uproot the influence of 17 Yao chiefs and 2 Ngoni chiefs. On the list were chiefs such as Jalasi, Mponda, Makanjila, Chikumbu, Mtilamanja, Matipwili of the Yao and Gomani of the Ngoni. Powerful chiefs in southern Africa were to be targeted in order to create the British empire from the Cape to Cairo. This was the dream of Cecil Rhodes. It started in South Africa where Cecil Rhodes's influence through the British crushed the Zulu kingdom, the Pedi, Ndebele of Zimbabwe and the Lozi of Zambia. With funding from Cecil Rhodes, from 1891 Johnson fought with the Yao for five years before they were subdued. Makanjila, Mponda Jalasi were the strongest Yao chiefs who fought the British under H.H. Johnson's command.
The history of the Yao conversion to Islam can be traced through their long expeditions to the east coast especially to Kilwa and Zanzibar. The Yao had begun to be attracted and converted to Islam before the 1840s. Salim bin Abdallah, who is better known as the Jumbe of Nkhotakota, followed in the Yao footsteps in 1840. It was from the Yao and the Nyamwezi he got accurate information about the geography of Malawi. In Nkhotakota Jumbe employed a number of Yao and Bisa. The Bisa had known the Yao through the ivory trade which they had both practised along the Luangwa valley where elephants were abundant. It must be understood that Islam in Malawi can be divided into phases [see the History of Islam in Malawi Before and after Christianity by Valiant Mussa, Blantyre: Fattan, 2005]. The Yao ruling class, particularly chief Makanjila, officially is said to have recommended Islam in 1870 like their Arab trading partners rather than the traditional belief in Mnungu. The Yao were not animist before Islam. They knew that there is one God known as Amanani, Achipinga, or Wakalakatele. They did not worship idols; rather their spiritual place was under an Msolo tree where they asked the assistance of God through amasoka (ancestral spirits). They believed that it was impossible to approach God directly but through Amasoka. As a benefit of their conversion, the Yao employed Swahili and Arab sheikhs from the coast who promoted literacy and founded mosques. Chief Mponda in Mangochi had almost twelve madrassas before the Christian missionaries arrived in 1875. At those madrassas Yao children were taught how to read and write before the Christian missionaries arrived in 1875. The Yao were the first people in Malawi to be literate. They learnt how to read and write through the Arabic alphabet. Their writings were in the Kiswahili language, which became a lingua franca of Malawi from 1870 to the 1960s. In contemporary history the Yao are known as illiterate people because they did not embrace western education which had a condition of one converting to Christianity before going to school. The school was the church and church was a school. In this way the Yao distanced themselves from the school. The most educated people in Malawi were found in Nkhata Bay and Rumphi. These were the two places where the Tonga in 1881 and the Tumbuka in 1894 embraced Christianity out of fear of the powerful Ngoni impis who were terrorizing them (see The Creation of Tribalism in southern Africa (ed.) Leroy Vail). The first people to attend school were the Tumbuka slave children. The Ngoni with their children were suspicious of the penetration of the missionaries in their domain. Today we find few Yaos in government departments, which has forced a large number of them to migrate to South Africa as a source of labour. In Malawi the Yao are farmers, tailors, hawkers, guards, fishermen and working in unskilled manual jobs. From the 1980s the Yao have been sending their children to foreign universities because it has been difficult for them to study at the University of Malawi since 1965. At the present time government departments have employed graduates from University of Zanzibar, the Islamic university of Uganda and International University of Sudan. The Yao believe that they have been deliberately marginalized by the authorities because of their faith. A number of Yao Muslims at one time concealed their Yao or Islamic names in order to pass to secondary school. Mariam was known as Mary; Yusufu was called Joseph; Che Sigele became Jeanet.
Using their strong partnership with the Yao, the Arab traders set up several trading posts along the shore of Lake Malawi. The Yao expeditions to the east attracted the attention of the Swahili-Arabs. It was from the Yao, the Swahili and Arabs knew the existence and the geography of Lake Malawi. Jumbe (Salim Abdallah) followed the Yao trade route from the eastern side of Lake Malawi up to Nkhotakota. When Jumbe arrived in Nkhotakota in 1840 he found a number of Yao and Bisa well established. Some of those Yao he found in Nkhotakota were already Islamised and he opted to employ them rather than employing non-Muslim Chewa. During the height of his power, Jumbe transported between 5,000 and 20,000 slaves through Nkhotakota annually. From Nkhotakota, the slaves were transported in caravans of no less than 500 slaves to the small island of Kilwa Kisiwani off the coast of modern-day Tanzania. The founding of these various posts effectively shifted the slave trade in Malawi from the Portuguese in Mozambique to the Arabs of Zanzibar.
Although the Yao and the Angoni continually clashed with each other, neither was able to win a decisive victory. However, the Ngoni of Dedza opted to work to work the Yao of Mpondas. The remaining members of the Maravi Empire, however, were nearly wiped out in attacks from both sides. Some Achewa chiefs saved themselves by creating alliances with the Swahili people who were allied with the Arab slave traders.
The Lomwe of Malawi are a recent introduction having arrived as late as the 1890s. The Lomwe came from a hill in Mozambique called uLomwe, north of the Zambezi River and south east of Lake Chilwa in Malawi. Theirs was also a story of hunger largely instigated by the Portuguese settlers moving into the neighbourhoods of uLomwe. To escape from ill-treatment, the Lomwe headed north and entered Nyasaland by way of the southern tip of lake Chilwa, settling in the Phalombe and Mulanje areas.
In Mulanje they found the Yao and Mang'anja already settled. The Yao chiefs such as Chikumbu, Mtilamanja, Matipwili, Juma, Chiuta welcomed the Lomwe as their cousins from Mozambique. A large number of Lomwe were given land by the Yao and Mang'anja. Later on the Lomwe got employment on tea estates that various British companies were establishing on the foothills of Mount Mulanje. They gradually spread into Thyolo and Chiradzulu. The Lomwe readily mixed with the local Mang'anja tribes, and there are no reported cases of tribal conflict.
The location of Malawi was known to the Arabs and Swahili of the east coast through the Yao. Later on it was the Portuguese who learnt of the existence of Lake Malawi. After the Portuguese arrival in the area in the 16th century, the next significant Western contact was the arrival of David Livingstone along the shore of Lake Malawi in 1859. Livingstone is said to have heard about the existence of Lake Malawi from a Portuguese in Tete. In 1859 it is recorded that he discovered the mass of water which was called by Yao people as Nyasa in Chiyao. Livingstone was surprised seeing the presence of Islam among the Yao of chief Mponda who had more than twelve madrassas running Islamic lessons, writing and reading Arabic. With this background, Livingstone painted a gloomy picture of the Mang'anja being captured, killed and enslaved by the marauding Yao from Mozambique. In 1861 under Bishop Charles Mackenzie missionaries of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa (U.M.C.A) were sent to open a mission in Magomero where the Yao were already Muslims. The bishop and Livingstone took the side of the Mang'anja in the politics of that area. Wars between the Yao and Bishop Mackenzie were fought. Crops and villages of the Yao were burnt by Livingstone and Bishop Mackenzie. (See Magomero A portrait of an Africa village by Landeg White). The mission was abandoned after the death of Bishop Mackenzie. The U.M.C.A shifted its sphere to Morumbala in Mozambique.
After the failure of the U.M.C.A in Magomero, Scottish Presbyterian churches established missions in Malawi, such as the St Michael and All Angels Church in Blantyre founded in 1876. The target once again were the Yao Muslims who had embraced Islam earlier than the 1870s. By the time the Established Church of Scotland came to Malawi, they found chief Kapeni a Yao Muslim ruling what is known as Blantyre today. It was Kapeni who gave the missionaries land to establish the said St Michael and All Angels Church. Many of Amangochi Yao of Kapeni succumbed to the pressure of the Christian influence and they became Christians such as chief Machinjiri, Kumtumanjia and others. One of the alleged objectives of the missionaries was to end the slave trade in Malawi that continued until the end of the 19th century. However, the hidden intention of Livingstone was to colonise Central Africa (see The Missionaries by Moorhouse). This was achieved through the influence of the church and later on the defeat of powerful Yao and Ngoni chiefs in the 1890s. In 1878, a number of traders, mostly from Glasgow, formed the African Lakes Company to supply goods and services to the missionaries. Other missionaries, traders, hunters, and planters soon followed.
Before the Established church of Scotland established a mission among the Yao of Kapeni 1876, another Scottish group of the Free Church of Scotland had secured land from the Machinga Yao chief Mponda in Mangochi. In 1875 chief Mponda gave land to Robert Laws. As a result, Laws opened a mission among the Islamised Yao in Mangochi. The mission station survived in the first years because food was plentiful in the Mponda and Makanjila areas. The chiefs of the said areas practiced commercial farming. However, the missionaries for six years failed to convert the Machinga Yao. However, Mangochi Yao of upper Shire such those found in Zomba and Blantyre embraced Christianity.
In 1889 the Catholic White Fathers also aimed to convert the Yao of Mponda in Mangochi. Chief Mponda gave them land to open a mission station. The influence of the Catholics has been strong since 1889. The Church had been trying its best to Christianise the Yao by building schools and a clinic every four kilometres in Mangochi. At present the Church has Radio Maria, a major seminary and the university in the district.
In 1883, a consul of the British Government was accredited to the "Kings and Chiefs of Central Africa" and in 1891, the British established the British Central Africa Protectorate.
In 1907 the name was changed to "Nyasaland" or the "Nyasaland Protectorate" (Nyasa is the Chiyao word for "lake"). In the 1950s, Nyasaland was joined with Northern and Southern Rhodesia in 1953 to form the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The Federation was dissolved on 31 December 1963.
In January 1915, John Chilembwe, a Millenarian pastor in south-eastern Nyasaland, led an unsuccessful revolt, known as the Chilembwe uprising, against British rule. Chilembwe opposed the recruitment of Nyasas in the British army's campaign in East Africa, as well as the system of colonial rule. Chilembwe's followers attacked local plantations, but were soon defeated by British forces. Chilembwe was killed, and many of his followers were executed.
In 1944, the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC), inspired by the African National Congress' Peace Charter of 1914, emerged. NAC soon spread across Southern African with powerful branches emerging among migrant Malawian workers in Salisbury (now Harare) in Southern Rhodesia and Lusaka, in Northern Rhodesia.
Thousands of Nyasalanders fought in the Second World War.
In July 1958, Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda returned to the country after a long absence in the United States, the United Kingdom and Ghana. He assumed leadership of the NAC, which later became the Malawi Congress Party (MCP). In 1959, Banda was sent to Gwelo Prison for his political activities but was released in 1960 to participate in a constitutional conference in London.
On 15 April 1961, the MCP won an overwhelming victory in elections for a new Legislative Council. It also gained an important role in the new Executive Council and ruled Nyasaland in all but name a year later. In a second constitutional conference in London in November 1962, the British Government agreed to give Nyasaland self-governing status the following year.
Hastings Banda became Prime Minister on 1 February 1963, although the British still controlled the country's financial, security, and judicial systems. A new constitution took effect in May 1963, providing for virtually complete internal self-government.
Malawi became a fully independent member of the Commonwealth (formerly the British Commonwealth) on 6 July 1964.
Shortly after, in August and September 1964, Banda faced dissent from most of his cabinet ministers in the Cabinet Crisis of 1964. The Cabinet Crisis began with a confrontation between Banda, the Prime Minister, and all the cabinet ministers present on 26 August 1964. Their grievances were not dealt with, but three cabinet ministers were dismissed on 7 September. These dismissals were followed, on the same day and on 9 September, by the resignations of three more cabinet ministers in sympathy with those dismissed, although one of those who had resigned rescinded his resignation within a few hours. The reasons that the ex-ministers put forward for the confrontation and their subsequent resignations were the autocratic attitude of Banda, who failed to consult other ministers and kept power in his own hands, his insistence on maintaining diplomatic relations with South Africa and Portugal and a number of domestic austerity measures. After continuing unrest and some clashes between their supporters and those of Banda, most of the ex-ministers left Malawi in October. One ex-minister, Henry Chipembere led a small, unsuccessful armed uprising in February 1965. After its failure, he arranged for his transfer to the USA. Another ex-minister, Yatuta Chisiza, organised an even smaller incursion from Mozambique in 1967, in which he was killed. Several of the former ministers died in exile or, in the case of Orton Chirwa in a Malawian jail, but some survived to return to Malawi after Banda was deposed in 1993, and resumed public life.
Two years later, Malawi adopted a republican constitution and became a one-party state with Hastings Banda as its first president.
In 1970, Hastings Banda was declared President for life of the MCP, and in 1971 Banda consolidated his power and was named President for life of Malawi itself. The paramilitary wing of the Malawi Congress Party, the Young Pioneers, helped keep Malawi under totalitarian control until the 1990s.
Banda, who was always referred to as "His Excellency the Life President Ngwazi Dr. H. Kamuzu Banda", was a dictator. Allegiance to him was enforced at every level. Every business building was required to have an official picture of Banda hanging on the wall. No other poster, clock, or picture could be placed higher on the wall than the president's picture. The national anthem was played before most events – including movies, plays, and school assemblies. At the cinemas, a video of His Excellency waving to his subjects was shown while the anthem played. When Banda visited a city, a contingent of women was expected to greet him at the airport and dance for him. A special cloth, bearing the President's picture, was the required attire for these performances. The one radio station in the country aired the President's speeches and government propaganda. People were ordered from their homes by police, and told to lock all windows and doors, at least an hour prior to President Banda passing by. Everyone was expected to wave.
Among the laws enforced by Banda, it was illegal for women to wear see-through clothes, pants of any kind or skirts which showed any part of the knee. There were two exceptions to this: if they were at a Country Club (a place where various sports were played) and if they were at a holiday resort/hotel, which meant that with the exception of the resort/hotel staff they were not seen by the general populace. Men were not allowed to have hair below the collar; when men whose hair was too long arrived in the country from overseas, they were given a haircut before they could leave the airport. Churches had to be government sanctioned. Members of certain religious groups, such as Jehovah's Witnesses, were persecuted and forced to leave the country at one time. All Malawian citizens of Indian heritage were forced to leave their homes and businesses and move into designated Indian areas in the larger cities. At one time, they were all told to leave the country, then hand-picked ones were allowed to return. It was illegal to transfer or take privately earned funds out of the country unless approved through proper channels; proof had to be supplied to show that one had already brought in the equivalent or more in foreign currency in the past. When some left, they gave up goods and earnings.
All movies shown in theatres were first viewed by the Malawi Censorship Board. Content considered unsuitable – particularly nudity or political content – was edited. Mail was also monitored by the Censorship Board. Some overseas mail was opened, read, and sometimes edited. Videotapes had to be sent to the Censorship Board to be viewed by censors. Once edited, the movie was given a sticker stating that it was now suitable for viewing, and sent back to the owner. Telephone calls were monitored and disconnected if the conversation was politically critical. Items to be sold in bookstores were also edited. Pages, or parts of pages, were cut out or blacked out of magazines such as "Newsweek" and "Time".
While Malawi was a middle income country in the world during much of Banda's tenure, he managed to keep peace in the country for most of the time he was in power. He was a wealthy man, like most if not all world leaders. He owned houses (and lived in a palace), businesses, private helicopters, cars and other such luxuries. Speaking out against the President was strictly prohibited. Those who did so were often deported or imprisoned. Banda and his government were criticised for human rights violations by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. After he was deposed, Banda was put on trial for murder and attempts to destroy evidence.
During his rule, Banda was one of the very few post-colonial African leaders to maintain diplomatic relations with Apartheid-era South Africa.
Increasing domestic unrest and pressure from Malawian churches and from the international community led to a referendum in which the Malawian people were asked to vote for either a multi-party democracy or the continuation of a one-party state. On 14 June 1993, the people of Malawi voted overwhelmingly in favour of multi-party democracy. Free and fair national elections were held on 17 May 1994 under a provisional constitution, which took full effect the following year.
Bakili Muluzi, leader of the United Democratic Front (UDF), was elected President in those elections. The UDF won 82 of the 177 seats in the National Assembly and formed a coalition government with the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD). That coalition disbanded in June 1996, but some of its members remained in the government. The President was referred to as Dr Muluzi, having received an honorary degree at Lincoln University in Missouri in 1995. Malawi's newly written constitution (1995) eliminated special powers previously reserved for the Malawi Congress Party. Accelerated economic liberalisation and structural reform accompanied the political transition.
On 15 June 1999, Malawi held its second democratic elections. Bakili Muluzi was re-elected to serve a second five-year term as President, despite an MCP-AFORD Alliance that ran a joint slate against the UDF.
The aftermath of elections brought the country to the brink of civil strife. Disgruntled Tumbuka, Ngoni and Nkhonde Christian tribes dominant in the north were irritated by the election of Bakili Muluzi, a Muslim from the south. Conflict arose between Christians and Muslims of the Yao tribe (Muluzi's tribe). Property valued at over millions of dollars was either vandalised or stolen and 200 mosques were torched down.
In 2001, the UDF held 96 seats in the National Assembly, while the AFORD held 30, and the MCP 61. Six seats were held by independents who represent the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) opposition group. The NDA was not recognised as an official political party at that time. The National Assembly had 193 members, of whom 17 were women, including one of the Deputy Speakers.
Malawi saw its very first transition between democratically elected presidents in May 2004, when the UDF's presidential candidate Bingu wa Mutharika defeated MCP candidate John Tembo and Gwanda Chakuamba, who was backed by a grouping of opposition parties. The UDF, however, did not win a majority of seats in Parliament, as it had done in 1994 and 1999 elections. It successfully secured a majority by forming a "government of national unity" with several opposition parties. Bingu wa Mutharika left the UDF party on 5 February 2005 citing differences with the UDF, particularly over his anti-corruption campaign. He won a second term outright in the 2009 election as the head of a newly founded party, the Democratic Progressive Party.
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Demographics of Malawi
This article is about the demographic features of the population of Malawi, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
Malawi derives its name from the Maravi, a Bantu people who came from the southern Congo about 600 years ago. On reaching the area north of Lake Malawi, the Maravi divided. One branch, the ancestors of the present-day Chewas, moved south to the west bank of the lake. The other, the ancestors of the Nyanjas, moved down the east bank to the southern part of the country.
By AD 1500, the two divisions of the tribe had established a kingdom stretching from north of the present-day city of Nkhotakota to the Zambezi River in the south, and from Lake Malawi in the east, to the Luangwa River in Zambia in the west.
Migrations and tribal conflicts precluded the formation of a cohesive Malawian society until the turn of the 20th century. In more recent years, ethnic and tribal distinctions have diminished. Regional distinctions and rivalries, however, persist. Despite some clear differences, no significant friction currently exists between tribal groups, and the concept of a Malawian nationality has begun to take hold. Predominantly a rural people, Malawians are generally conservative and traditionally nonviolent.
The Chewas constitute 90% of the population of the central region; the Nyanja tribe predominates in the south and the Tumbuka in the north. In addition, significant numbers of the Tongas live in the north; Ngonis—an offshoot of the Zulus who came from South Africa in the early 19th century—live in the lower northern and lower central regions; and the Yao, who are mostly Muslim, predominate in the Southern Region of the country and live in a wide band from Blantyre and Zomba north to Lake Malawi and east to the border with Mozambique. Bantus of other tribes came from Mozambique as refugees.
According to the total population was in , compared to only 2 881 000 in 1950. The proportion of children below the age of 15 in 2010 was 45.8%, 51.1% was between 15 and 65 years of age, while 3.1% was 65 years or older.
TFR - 4.17
Structure of the population (DHS 2010) (Males 55 159, Females 58 414 = 113 574) :
Structure of the population (DHS 2014) (Males 6 855, Females 7 125 = 13 979) :
Numbers are in thousands. UN medium variant projections
Registration of vital events is in Malawi not complete. The Population Departement of the United Nations prepared the following estimates.
Births and deaths
Total Fertility Rate (TFR) (Wanted Fertility Rate) and Crude Birth Rate (CBR):
Fertility data as of 2016 (DHS Program):
Demographic statistics according to the World Population Review in 2019.
The following demographic are from the CIA World Factbook unless otherwise indicated.
Protestant 27.2% (includes Church of Central Africa Presbyterian 17.7%, Seventh Day Adventist/Baptist 6.9%, Anglican 2.6%), Catholic 18.4%, other Christian 41%, Muslim 12.1%, other 0.3%, none 1% (2015-16 est.)
1 Doctor/65,000 Malawians
"definition:" age 15 and over can read and write
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Politics of Malawi
Politics of Malawi takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Malawi is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the National Assembly. There is a cabinet of Malawi that is appointed by the President of Malawi. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The government of Malawi has been a multi-party democracy since 1994.
Under the 1995 constitution, the president, who is both chief of state and head of the government, is chosen through universal direct suffrage every 5 years. Malawi has a vice president who is elected with the president. The president has the option of appointing a second vice president, who must be from a different party. It also includes a presidentially appointed cabinet. The members of the cabinet of Malawi can be drawn from either within or outside of the legislature.
Bakili Muluzi was president from 21 May 1994 to May 2004, having won reelection in 2000 with 51.4% of the vote to leading challenger Gwandaguluwe Chakuamba's 44.3% for the MCP-AFORD party. In the 2004 election Bingu wa Mutharika defeated Chakuamba by a ten-point margin.
The President of Malawi and the current executive branch is supported by appointed members of a Cabinet of Malawi and government agencies in Malawi.
The National Assembly has 193 members, elected for a five-year term in single-seat constituencies. The constitution also originally provided for a second house, a Senate of 80 seats, but to date no action has been taken to create the Senate, and the provisions allowing for its creation were deleted in 2001. The Senate is intended to provide representation for traditional leaders and the different geographical districts, as well as various special interest groups, such as women, youth, and the disabled.
The constitution provides for an independent judiciary. Malawi's judicial system, based on the English model, is made up of magisterial lower courts, a High Court, and a Supreme Court of Appeal.
Until 1969, Malawi retained a system of justice based on the colonial model, which followed the principles of English law as amended by the laws of Malawi. The hierarchy of courts began with Magistrates’ Courts in the towns, rising to a High Court and finally a Supreme Court of Appeal. In addition, mainly in rural areas, there are several levels of local courts with varying powers to hear disputes such as divorces and other matrimonial issues, inheritance and access to land based on traditional customary law. these courts also heard minor criminal cases specified in the Malawi Penal Code, using an expedited procedure. These were subordinate to the High Court, and subject to legislation giving the guarantee of a fair trial, including the right to legal representation and the right to appeal to the High Court.
After independence in 1964, Banda, who was then Prime Minister, and the Minister of Justice Orton Chirwa began to criticise such principles of English-based law as the Presumption of innocence, the need to establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt and the requirement for corroborating evidence. In 1969, the acquittal of five defendants in the first Chilobwe murders trial caused outrage although, as another individual was later found guilty of all these murders in a second trial, this anger was misplaced. Parliamentary reaction was hostile, and several speakers, including ministers, openly suggested that European judges and the European-style legal system had allowed clearly guilty defendants to escape the punishment they deserved. Aleke Banda, the Minister of Finance, particularly attacked the use of defence lawyers and the legal safeguards imposed by the English-law Rules of evidence. Banda (who had become President in 1966) said that, if the judge had any conscience, he should resign and specifically linked traditional law to making punishment certain, claiming that lack of evidence was not proof of innocence.
From 1970, the system of Traditional Courts was transformed. Three Regional Traditional Courts and a National Traditional Court of Appeal were created above the existing network of lower-level traditional courts, and given jurisdiction over virtually all criminal trials, including murder and treason, involving Africans of Malawian descent, using "customary" rules of evidence and procedure. Any appeals were directed to a National Traditional Court of Appeal rather than the Malawi High Court, as had been the case before 1970. The High Court and Supreme Court of Appeal remained in existence, and mainly dealt with civil law cases outside customary law. Although these courts retained their criminal jurisdiction, in practice the vast majority of criminal cases were heard in Traditional Courts. The Traditional Courts were supposed to operate in accordance with African law and custom, although they applied an authoritarian, restrictive and punitive version of customary law, in line with the views of Banda. The majority of the judges were chiefs without legal training, appointed by and liable to dismissal by Banda, so without any judicial independence. Defendants were not allowed lawyers to plead their cases, had no automatic rights either to call witnesses or of appeal (these were at the discretion of the courts and the minister of Justice). They were not given a summary of the charges against them before the trial, so could not prepare a defence.
During the 1970s and 1980s, the Traditional Courts gained a reputation for being used to prosecute Banda's political opponents and of being corrupt. The political manipulation of the Traditional Courts is shown in the high-profile trials of in 1976 of Albert Muwalo, Secretary General of the Malawi Congress Party and Focus Gwede, Head of the Police Special Branch, on a charge of attempting to assassinate President Banda, and the 1983 treason trial of Orton Chirwa, who was Minister of Justice until the Cabinet Crisis of 1964 and his wife, Vera Chirwa. In both cases, unsubstantiated evidence was admitted to secure convictions and all four were sentenced to death on flimsy evidence, although only Muwalo was ultimately executed.
During the transition to democracy, the operation of the three regional Traditional Courts and the National Traditional Appeal Court was suspended indefinitely in October 1993, which amounted in practice to their abolition. When the new Constitution came into force on 18 May 1994, it recognised customary law as an integral part of the legal system and converted many of the local, lower level Traditional Courts into Magistrates’ courts. It also provided for a new system of Traditional Courts but no legislation to set up such courts was introduced before 2011. The 2011 legislation provided for two levels of customary law courts: several Local Courts were established in each of Malawi's 27 districts, mainly in rural areas, and one District Appeals Local Court in each district (to hear appeals from the Local Courts). Further appeals may be made to the High Court, to which both types of Local Courts are subordinate. Each Local Court and District Appeals Local Court was headed by chairperson, who need not be a lawyer, but with a reasonable standard of education, proficiency in English and an adequate knowledge of the customary law and language of the area that the court serves. Complaints have been made that the Local Courts, now popularly called Traditional Courts, are charging excessive court fees to settle disputes.
At present (2013), Malawi has as its highest court a Supreme Court of Appeal with jurisdiction only in appeals from lower courts. Its members include the Chief Justice and nine other Supreme Court justices. The High Court of Malawi has unlimited original jurisdiction to hear and determine any civil or criminal proceedings. Most High Court cases are heard before a single judge, without a jury, but cases on constitutional matters must be heard by three judges: there is a Chief Judge and 19 other High Court judges. The High Court has a General Division which may also hear appeals from subordinate courts, and a Commercial Division, dealing with commercial or business cases. One subordinate court is the Industrial Relations Court with jurisdiction over employment issues. Cases before it are heard informally, and with some restrictions on legal representation, by a panel consisting of a chairperson and one representative each of employers and employees. Other subordinate courts are the Magistrate Courts and Local or Traditional Courts. These have defined criminal and civil jurisdiction depending ontheir level, but expressly excluding cases of treason, murder or manslaughter.
Local government is carried out in 28 districts within three regions administered by regional administrators and district commissioners who are appointed by the central government. Local elections, the first in the multi-party era, took place on November 21, 2000. The UDF party won 70% of the seats in this election.
The districts are Balaka, Blantyre, Chikwawa, Chiradzulu, Chitipa, Dedza, Dowa, Karonga, Kasungu, Likoma, Lilongwe, Machinga, Mangochi, Mchinji, Mulanje, Mwanza, Mzimba, Neno, Nkhata Bay, Nkhotakota, Nsanje, Ntcheu, Ntchisi, Phalombe, Rumphi, Salima, Thyolo, Zomba
Malawi is a multi-party state system (see list of political parties in Malawi). Malawi began as a one-party state in 1964, with the MCP being the only party until 1993. A movement called the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD) under the leadership of Chakufwa Chihana grew, calling for the end of Kamuzu Banda's dictatorship. Due to this internal and external pressure Banda agreed to hold a national referendum in 1993 where the nation voted to become a multi-party state. AFORD became the first registered opposition political party, and other opposition parties formed thereafter. The first multi-party elections occurred in 1994 in which the UDF won votes as the first administration under a multi-party system under Bakili Muluzi. Malawi is now a multi -party nation with 40 registered parties but only a few prominent ones.
Elections in Malawi have been held every five years since 1994. Past election years in Malawi were in 1994, 1999, 2004, 2009, 2009 and the last one held in May 2014.
ACP,
AfDB,
C,
CCC,
ECA,
FAO,
G-77,
IBRD,
ICAO,
ICCt,
ICFTU,
ICRM,
IDA,
IFAD,
IFC,
IFRCS,
ILO,
IMF,
IMO,
Intelsat,
Interpol,
IOC,
ISO (correspondent),
ITU,
NAM,
OAU,
OPCW,
SADC,
UN,
UNCTAD,
UNESCO,
UNIDO,
UNMIK,
UPU,
WFTU,
WHO,
WIPO,
WMO,
WToO,
WTrO
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Economy of Malawi
The economy of Malawi is predominantly agricultural, with about 80% of the population living in rural areas. The landlocked country in south central Africa ranks among the world's least developed countries. In 2017, agriculture accounted for about one-third of GDP and about 80% of export revenue. The economy depends on substantial inflows of economic assistance from the IMF, the World Bank, and individual donor nations. The government faces strong challenges: to spur exports, to improve educational and health facilities, to face up to environmental problems of deforestation and erosion, and to deal with the problem of HIV/AIDS in Africa.
Malawi's most important export crop is tobacco, which accounted for a third (30%) of export revenue in 2012. In 2000, the country was the tenth-largest producer in the world. The country's heavy reliance on tobacco places a heavy burden on the economy as world prices decline and the international community increases pressure to limit tobacco production. Malawi's dependence on tobacco is growing, with the product jumping from 53% to 70% of export revenues between 2007 and 2008.
The country also relies heavily on tea, sugarcane and coffee, with these three plus tobacco making up more than 90% of Malawi's export revenue. Tea was first introduced in 1878. Most of it is grown in Mulanje and Thyolo. Other crops include cotton, corn, potatoes, sorghum, cattle and goats. Tobacco and sugar processing are notable secondary industries.
Traditionally Malawi has been self-sufficient in its staple food, maize (corn), and during the 1980s it exported substantial quantities to its drought-stricken neighbors. Nearly 90% of the population engages in subsistence farming. Smallholder farmers produce a variety of crops, including maize, beans, rice, cassava, tobacco, and groundnuts (peanuts). Financial wealth is generally concentrated in the hands of a small elite. Malawi's manufacturing industries are situated around the city of Blantyre.
Lake Malawi and Lake Chilwa provide most of the fish for the region. For many Malawians, fish is the most important source of proteins. Dried fish is not only consumed locally, but also exported to neighboring countries. Most fishing is done on small scale by hand. However, Maldeco Fisheries owns several commercial fishing boats and operates fish farms in the southern part of Lake Malawi.
Malawi has few exploitable mineral resources. A South-African Australian consortium exploits uranium at a mine near Karonga. Coal is being extracted in Mzimba District. Malawi's economic reliance on the export of agricultural commodities renders it particularly vulnerable to external shocks such as declining terms of trade and drought. High transport costs, which can comprise over 30% of its total import bill, constitute a serious impediment to economic development and trade. Malawi must import all its fuel products. Other challenges include a paucity of skilled labor, difficulty in obtaining expatriate employment permits, bureaucratic red tape, corruption, and inadequate and deteriorating road, electricity, water, and telecommunications infrastructure which hinder economic development in Malawi. However, recent government initiatives targeting improvements in the road infrastructure, together with private sector participation in railroad and telecommunications, have begun to render the investment environment more attractive.
The following are Malawi's top 20 agricultural production values and volumes for 2009. (Unofficial figures derived from FAO statistics)
Key:
F : FAO estimate, Im: FAO data based on imputation methodology, P : Provisional official data
The following table shows the main economic indicators in 1980–2017.
In 2013, Malawi's manufacturing sector contributed 10.7% of GDP. The main industries are food processing, construction, consumer goods, cement, fertilizer, ginning, furniture production and cigarette production.
The government's attempts to diversify the agriculture sector and move up the global value chain have been seriously constrained by poor infrastructure, an inadequately trained work force and a weak business climate. In order to help companies adopt innovative practices and technologies, the "National Export Strategy" adopted in 2013 affords companies greater access to the outcome of international research and better information about available technologies; it also helps companies to obtain grants to invest in such technologies from sources such as the country's Export Development Fund and the Malawi Innovation Challenge Fund. In parallel, the government has raised its investment in research and development to 1% of GDP.
Most fruits and vegetables are exported raw, while processed food is imported mainly from South Africa. Carlsberg opened its first brewery outside of Denmark in Blantyre in 1965. The brewery also bottles Coca-Cola products under licence. A mango processing plant for the export of fruit concentrate opened in Salima in 2013. Universal Industries operates several food factories in Blantyre, where it produces sweets, crisps, biscuits, milk powder, soy products and baby food. Coffee and tea are processed by half a dozen of different companies in the regions of Thyolo, Mulanje and around Mzuzu.
Malawi has four pharmaceutical companies. They manufacture a limited range of drugs, particularly those that are in great demand on the local market. These are Pharmanova Ltd., which is the biggest pharmaceutical manufacturer in Malawi, followed by SADM, Malawi Pharmacies (Pharmaceuticals Limited) and Kentam Products Limited.
Large man-made pine tree forests are located in the Viphya Mountains, around Mulanje and Zomba. Timber production for building materials and furniture is an important industry for these regions. However, most areas in Malawi suffer from deforestation due to illegal logging for charcoal production and the use of firewood.
Malawi's sole power supplier is the state owned Electricity Supply Commission of Malawi (ESCOM), which generates almost all its power from hydroelectric plants along the Shire River. The installed is approximately 351MW. About 12% of the country's population has access to electricity, according to 2014 World Bank figures.
The country has been suffering from intermittent power outages as a result of an ongoing drought that has halved power output as water levels of the Shire river dropped significantly. The river usually generates 300MW of electricity, accounting for 98% of Malawi's total supply. However, the drought reduced that capacity to 160MW, according to ESCOM.
The service sector accounts for 51.7% of Malawi's national GDP. Notable industries are tourism, retail, transport, education, health services, telecommunication and the banking sector. The Government of Malawi holds shares in many important companies, such as Malawian Airlines (51%) and Press Corporation Limited. Press Corporation Ltd. is the country's biggest company, with subsidiaries in the tobacco, banking, sugar, fishing, ethanol production, steel production, retail, telecommunication and petrol sectors.
Malawi has undertaken economic structural adjustment programs supported by the World Bank (IBRD), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and other donors since 1981. Broad reform objectives include stimulation of private sector activity and participation through the elimination of price controls and industrial licensing, liberalization of trade and foreign exchange, rationalization of taxes, privatization of state-owned enterprises, and civil service reform. Malawi qualified for Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) debt relief and is in the process of refining its poverty reduction strategy.
Malawi has bilateral trade agreements with its two major trading partners, South Africa and Zimbabwe, both of which allow duty-free entry of Malawian products into their countries. The government faces challenges such as the improvement of Malawi's educational and health facilities — particularly important because of the rising rates of HIV/AIDS — and environmental problems including deforestation, erosion, and overworked soils.
In 2006, in response to disastrously low agricultural harvests, Malawi, through an initiative by the late President Bingu Mutharika, an economist by profession, began a program of fertilizer subsidies that were designed to re-energize the land and boost crop production. It has been reported that this program, championed by the country's president, is radically improving Malawi's agriculture, and causing Malawi to become a net exporter of food to nearby countries.
Economic grievances though took a downward slide during Mutharika's second term. Economic grievances were a catalyst that resulted in the 2011 economic protests in Malawi in July.
The following figures are taken from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.
GDP:
purchasing power parity = $22.37 billion (2017 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
4% (2017 est.)
GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $1200 (2017 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
"agriculture:"
28.1%
"industry:"
15.8%
"services:"
56.1% (2016 est.)
Population below poverty line:
50.7% (2010 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
23% (2014 est.)
Labor force:
7 million (2013 est.)
Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture 76.9%, industry and services 23.1% (2013 est.)
Unemployment rate:
NA%
Budget:
"revenues:"
$1.346 billion (2017 est.)
"expenditures:"
$1.556 billion (2017 est.)
Public Debt
59.3% of GDP (2017 est.)
Industries:
tobacco, tea, sugar, sawmill products, cement, consumer goods, cotton, consumer goods, uranium and coal mining
Industrial production growth rate:
2.8% (2013 est.)
Electricity - production:
1.973 billion kWh (2010 est.)
Electricity - consumption:
1.835 billion kWh (2010 est.)
Agriculture - products:
tobacco, sugar cane, cotton, tea, maize, potatoes, cassava (tapioca), sorghum, pulses; cattle, goats
Exports:
$1.427 billion (2013 est.)
Exports - commodities:
tobacco, tea, sugar, cotton, coffee, peanuts, wood products, apparel, uranium and its compounds
Exports - partners:
Canada 10.6%, Zimbabwe 9.3%, Germany 7.3%, South Africa 6.6%, Russia 6.5%, US 6.1%, China 4.2% (2012)
Imports:
$2.42 billion (2013 est.)
Imports - commodities:
food, petroleum products, semimanufactures, consumer goods, transportation equipment
Imports - partners:
South Africa 27%, China 16.6%, India 8.7%, Zambia 8.5%, Tanzania 5.1%, US 4.3% (2012)
Current account balance
- $280.1 million (2013 est.)
Debt - external:
$1.556 billion (31 December 2013 est.)
Economic aid - recipient:
$575.3 million (2005)
Foreign direct investment - inflow
$129.5 million (2014)
Currency:
1 Malawian kwacha (MK) = 100 tambala
Exchange rates:
Malawian kwachas per US dollar -730.00 (20/June/2016), 460.00 (20/Jan/2015), 360.00 (6/Feb/2013), 165.961 (1/Sep/2011), 145.179 (2009), 135.96 (2006), 108.894 (2005), 108.898 (2004), 97.433 (2003), 76.687 (2002)
Fiscal year:
1 July - 30 June
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Communications in Malawi
Communications in Malawi includes the country's postal, telephone, television, radio and internet services.
Malawi Posts Corporation provides the national postal service in Malawi and runs the post offices throughout the country. Ten other postal services providers operate in Malawi, including DHL, FedEx.
Postal services in Malawi are regulated by the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA).
Mobile telephones are vastly more common than fixed line phones in Malawi, with over 6.1 million mobile subscriptions compared with only 45,678 fixed line subscriptions .
A report by the International Telecommunications Union in 2014 found the average Malawians spend on mobile phones was over 56% of the average monthly earning there. This was the highest proportion of earnings found by the survey.
Telephone system:
Radio and television broadcast services in Malawi are also regulated by the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA).
There are 45 licensed radio broadcast stations, of which 31 are operational: AM 9, FM 5 (plus 15 repeater stations), shortwave 2 (plus a third station held in standby status)) ()
Radios: 2.6 million ()
There are 20 licensed television broadcast stations, of which 5 are operational ().
The internet in Malawi is regulated by the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) Business to consumer Internet service providers include Airtel, and Malawi Postal Service.
The number of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) was 18 (). The Country code (Top level domain) is MW.
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Transport in Malawi
Transportation in Malawi is poorly developed. The country of almost 14 million has 39 airports, 6 with paved runways and 33 with unpaved runways. It has of railways, all narrow-gauge and about 45 percent of its roads are paved. Though it is landlocked, Malawi also has of waterways on Lake Malawi and along the Shire River.
Recent assessments indicate that there were of roads in the country; of these, (45 percent) were paved. The remaining were not paved.
Lake Nyasa (Lake Malawi) and Shire River (144 kilometres) provide the major waterways. There is a railhead at the port of Chipoka, Salima district in central Malawi. Smaller ports exist at Monkey Bay, Nkhata Bay, Nkhotakota and Chilumba.
The MV Ilala connects Likoma Island with the mainland, as well as the Malawian and Mozambican sides of the lake.
In 2010, a port in Nsanje was opened to connect the country through the Shire and Zambezi rivers with the Indian Ocean. As of 2015, the port is not operational due to unresolved contracts with Mozambique.
Malawian Airlines Limited is the national airline of Malawi which operates regional passenger service. Based in Lilongwe, it is 51% owned by the Malawi government. 49% are controlled by Ethiopian Airlines The airline's main base of operations is Lilongwe International Airport, with a secondary hub at Chileka International Airport.
In 2001 there was a total of 44 airports in the country.
As of 2015, two airports have scheduled passenger services.
"total:"
6
"over 3,047 m:"
1
"1,524 to 2,437 m:"
1
"914 to 1,523 m:"
4 (2002)
"total:"
37
"1,524 to 2,437 m:"
1
"914 to 1,523 m:"
14
"under 914 m:"
22 (2002)
Malawi Railways is the national rail network in Malawi, run by a government corporation until privatisation in 1999. As of 1 December 1999 the Central East African Railways, a consortium led by Railroad Development Corporation, won the right to operate the network. This was the first rail privatisation in Africa which did not involve a parastatal operator.
The rail network totalled 797 kilometres in 2001. It is a narrow gauge line with a track.
The , gauge line extends from the Zambian border at Mchinji in the west via Lilongwe to Blantyre and Makhanga in the south. At Nkaya Junction it links with the Nacala Corridor line going east via Nayuchi to Mozambique's deepwater port at Nacala on the Indian Ocean. The link south from Makhanga to Mozambique's Beira corridor has been closed since the Mozambique Civil War, with plans for reconstruction not yet realised.
There is no direct link with neighbouring Tanzania as there is a break of gauge, / . An extension from Mchinji to Chipata in Zambia opened in 2010, and there is a proposal to eventually link up from there with the TAZARA railway at Mpika. Direct linkage is available with Mozambique, however, which has the same gauge track. Linkage is called the Nacala Corridor line via Nayuchi to the port of Nacala, and Nsanje to the Dona Ana Bridge and Beira. The latter link has not been operational since the war in Mozambique and is in need of reconstruction.
In 2006, a Brazilian company (VALE) announced plans to build a rail branch line to the Moatize coal mine in western Mozambique from the Nacala Corridor line to export coal via the port of Nacala; the link would cross Malawi. The national Railroad Development Corporation map shows a proposed extension across the border to Chipata in Zambia. Central East African Railways, previously a subsidiary of the Railroad Development Corporation, operates the privatised Malawi Railways network. Also in 2006, the president of Malawi, Bingu wa Mutharika asked his Mozambiquan counterpart, Armando Guebuza, to consider the provision of a new 250 kilometre rail connection from Nsanje - the then-current southern extent of Malawi Railways - to the Indian Ocean port of Chinde, near the mouth of the Zambesi.
As of 2007, there were 175,200 land line telephones in Malawi, and 1.051 million cell phones, which is approximately 8 cell phones per 100 people. The telephone system overall is described as rudimentary. In the past, Malawi's telecommunications system has been named as some of the poorest in Africa, but conditions are improving, with 130,000 land line telephones being connected between 2000 and 2007. Telephones are much more accessible in urban areas, with less than a quarter of land lines being in rural areas. There were 139,500 Internet users as of 2007, and 3 Internet service providers as of 2002. As of 2001 there were 14 radio stations and 1 TV station.
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Demographics of Malaysia
The demographics of Malaysia are represented by the multiple ethnic groups that exist in the country. Malaysia's population, according to the 2010 census, is 28,334,000 including non-citizens, which makes it the 42nd most populated country in the world. Of these, 5.72 million live in East Malaysia and 22.5 million live in Peninsular Malaysia. The population distribution is uneven, with some 79% of its citizens concentrated in Peninsular Malaysia, which has an area of , constituting under 40% of the total area of Malaysia.
The Malaysian population is growing at a rate of 1.94% per annum as of 2017. According to latest projection of the 2010 census, the fertility rates of the 3 largest Malaysian groups are as follows: Malay/Bumiputera: 2.4 children per woman, Chinese: 1.4 children per woman and Indian: 1.8 children per woman. Malay fertility rates are 40% higher than Malaysian Indians and 56% higher than Malaysian Chinese. Population projections in 2017 show that the Malays and Bumiputeras comprised a total of 68.8% of the total population, Chinese 23.2% and Indians 7.0%. The Chinese population has shrunk proportionally from 1957, when it was about 40% of Malaya, although in absolute numbers they have increased around threefold by 2017 in Malaysia (2.4 million in 1957 to 6.6 million in 2017, the later figure include East Malaysia) but have been dwarfed by the fivefold increase of Malays (from around 3.1 million in 1957 to 15.5 million in 2017).
Censuses were taken in Malaysia in 1970, 1980, 1991, and 2000, with the one in 2000 taking place between 5 and 20 July. The total population is around 28.3 million according to the 2010 census. The population distribution is highly uneven, with some 20 million residents concentrated in Peninsula Malaysia. 74.7% of the population is urban. Due to the rise in labour-intensive industries, Malaysia is estimated to have over 3 million migrant workers, which is about 10% of the Malaysian population. The exact numbers are unknown: there are a million legal foreign workers and perhaps another million unauthorised foreigners. The state of Sabah alone had nearly 25% of its 2.7 million population listed as illegal foreign workers in the last census. Sabah based NGOs estimate that out of the 3 million population, 2 million are illegal immigrants.
Additionally, according to the "World Refugee Survey 2008", published by the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), Malaysia hosts a population of refugees and asylum seekers numbering approximately 155,700. Of this population, approximately 70,500 refugees and asylum seekers are from the Philippines, 69,700 from Burma, and 21,800 from Indonesia. The USCRI named Malaysia as one of the ten worst places for refugees on account of the country's discriminatory practices toward them. Malaysian officials are reported to have turned deportees directly over to human smugglers in 2007, and Malaysia employs RELA, a volunteer militia, to enforce its immigration law.
Source: National Census 2000, Department of Statistics Malaysia.
Source: National Census 2010, Department of Statistics Malaysia
Data from July 2010.
Structure of the population (01.07.2011) (Estimates – Data refer to projections based on the 2018 Population Census):
Structure of the population (2015 estimates) :
Data for (^) obtained from Department of Statistics releases. See notes. All key rates sampled per 1000 of population.
Data from United Nation:
Data from Department of Statistics Malaysia:
Births
Deaths
Natural increase
Total fertility rate (TFR) by state as of 2011:
Average life expectancy at age 0 of the total population.
Malaysia's population comprises many ethnic groups. People of Austronesian origin make up the majority of the population, and are known as the Bumiputras. Large Chinese and Indian minorities also exist. Malays, as Bumiputra, see Malaysia as their land, and since race riots in 1969 Bumiputra have been especially privileged in Malaysia – top government positions are reserved for Malays, and the Malays received cheaper housing, priority in government jobs as well as business licenses. However, since the riot racial stability has prevailed, if not full harmony, and mixed marriages are on the rise. The following are the twenty-five largest ethnolinguistic groups in Malaysia; speakers of distinct dialects of a language may be grouped separately, for example Terengganu Malay and Kelantan Malay are grouped into East Coast Malay:
Bumiputras totaling 68.8% of Malaysia's population as of 2017 are divided into Muslim Malays proper, who make up the majority of the Malaysian population at 54.66%; and other bumiputra, who make up 14.14% of the Malaysian population, and most of whom belong to various Austronesian ethnic groups related to the Muslim Malays. Bumiputra status is also accorded to certain non-Malay indigenous peoples, including ethnic Thais, Khmers, Chams and the natives of Sabah and Sarawak. Laws over who gets Bumiputra status vary between states. Some Eurasians can obtain bumiputra privileges, providing they can prove they are of Portuguese (Kristang) descent.
The Malays are an ethnic group predominantly inhabiting the Malay Peninsula and parts of Sumatra and Borneo. They form the largest community in Malaysia and play a dominant role politically. They make up about half of the total population. By constitutional definition, Malays are Muslims who practice Malay customs ("adat") and culture.
Their language, Malay ("Bahasa Malaysia"), is the national language of the country. Citizens of Minangkabau, Bugis or Javanese origins, who can be classified "Malay" under constitutional definitions may also speak their respective ancestral tongues. However, English is also widely spoken in major towns and cities across the country. Malays from different states in Malaysia carry distinct dialects that can sometimes be unintelligible to most of their fellow countrymen. By definition of the Malaysian constitution, all Malays are Muslims.
In the past, Malays wrote in Pallava or using the Sanskrit-based alphabet of Kawi. Arabic traders later introduced Jawi, an Arabic-based script, which became popular after the 15th century. Until then reading and writing were mostly the preserve of scholars and nobility, while most Malay commoners were illiterate. Jawi was taught along with Islam, allowing the script to spread through all social classes. Nevertheless, Kawi remained in use by the upper-class well into the 15th century. The Romanised script was introduced during the colonial period and, over time, it came to replace both Sanskrit and Jawi. This was largely due to the influence of the European education system, wherein children were taught the Latin alphabet.
Malay culture shows strong influences from Buddhism, Hinduism and animism. However, since the Islamisation movement of the 1980s and 90s, these aspects are often neglected or banned altogether. Because any Malay-speaking Muslim is entitled to Bumiputra privileges, many non-Malay Muslims have adopted the Malay language, customs and attire in the last few decades. This is particularly the case with Indian Muslims from the peninsula and the Kedayan of Borneo. The Malay ethnic group is distinct from the concept of a Malay race, which encompasses a wider group of people, including most of Indonesia and the Philippines.
Malaysia has many other non-Malay indigenous people, who are given Bumiputra status. The indigenous tribes are the oldest inhabitants of Malaysia, and the indigenous groups of Peninsular Malaysia are known collectively as Orang Asli and in East Malaysia as "Orang Asal". They account for about 11 percent of the nation's population, and represent a majority in East Malaysia of Sabah and Sarawak. In Sarawak, the dominant tribal group are the Dayak people, who are either Iban (also known as Sea Dayak) or Bidayuh (also known as Land Dayak) of which are mainly Christians. The Iban form the largest of all indigenous groups, numbering over 600,000 (35% of Sarawak's population), who mostly still live in traditional longhouses which can hold up to 200 people. Longhouses are mostly places along the Rajang and Lupar rivers and their tributaries, although many Iban have moved to the cities. The Bidayuhs, numbering around 170,000, are concentrated in the southwestern part of Sarawak. They, together with other indigenous groups in Sarawak make up over half of the states population.
The largest indigenous tribe in Sabah is the Kadazan, most of whom are Christians and rice farmers. They live as subsistence farmers. Sabah has a large amount of indigenous people, 28% of the population are Kadazan-Dusuns, and 17% are Bajaus.
There also exist aboriginal groups in much smaller numbers on the peninsula, where they are collectively known as Orang Asli (literally meaning "original person"). The 140,000 Orang Asli comprise a number of different ethnic communities. Many tribes, both on the peninsula and in Borneo, were traditionally nomadic or semi-nomadic hunter—gatherers who practice animism, including the Punan, Penan and Senoi. However, their ancestral land and hunting grounds are commonly reclaimed by the state, shifting them to inferior land and sometimes pushing them out of their traditional way of life. The most numerous of the Orang Asli are called Negritos and are related to native Papuans in West Papua, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, and possibly even to the aborigines in Australia. Other bumiputera minorities to a lesser degree include the Malaysian Siamese, Khmers, Chams, Burmese and the Indian Muslims commonly known as Mamaks.
Minorities who lack Bumiputra status have established themselves in Malaysia. Those who are not considered to be Bumiputras make up a considerable portion of the Malaysian population – non-Malays once constituted around 50% of the population of peninsula Malaya (1947–1957), but have since declined in percentage term due to a higher birthrate of Malays owing to favorable policies by the government as well as some degree of out-migration by the Chinese. A large number of the non-Bumiputra arrived during the colonial period, but most of the non-Bumiputras were native-born by 1947 as large-scale immigration had effectively ceased by the late 1940s. Some Chinese families, known as Peranakan ("straits-born"), have resided in Malaysia since as far back as 15th century Malacca.
The second largest ethnic group at 6.69 million are the Chinese who make up 23% of the population excluding non-citizens as of 2018. They have been dominant in trade and business since the early 20th century. Malaysian Chinese businesses developed as part of the larger bamboo network, a network of overseas Chinese businesses operating in the markets of Southeast Asia that share common family and cultural ties. George Town, Ipoh and Iskandar Puteri are Chinese-majority cities, while Penang was the only state in Malaysia with a non-Bumiputera majority population until 2017. The Chinese have been settling in Malaysia for many centuries, as seen in the emergence of the "Peranakan" culture, but the exodus peaked during the nineteenth century through trading and tin-mining. When they first arrived, the Chinese often worked the most grueling jobs like tin mining and railway construction. Later on, some of them owned businesses that became large conglomerates in today's Malaysia. Most Chinese are Tao Buddhist and retain strong cultural ties to their ancestral homeland.
The first Chinese people to settle in the Straits Settlements, primarily in and around Malacca, gradually adopted elements of Malayan culture, and some intermarried with the Malayan community. A distinct sub-ethnic group called "babas" (male) and "nyonyas" (female) emerged. "Babas" and "nyonyas" as a group are known as "Peranakan". They produced a syncretic set of practices, beliefs, and arts, combining Malay and Chinese traditions in such a way as to create a new culture. The "Peranakan" culture is still visible to this day in the former Straits Settlements of Singapore, Malacca and Penang.
The Chinese community in Malaysia, depending on the predominant dialect in a particular region, speaks a variety of Chinese dialects including Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese, Hakka and Teochew. In certain regions in Malaysia, some dialects are more widely used; Hokkien predominates in Penang and Kedah, while most Chinese in the former centres of tin mining, such as Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur, speak Cantonese. More recently, however, with the standardised, compulsory use of Mandarin in Chinese schools, a huge majority of Malaysian Chinese now speak Mandarin, a non-native language that originated from northern China.
On the other hand, it was reported that up to 10% of Malaysian Chinese are primarily English-speaking. The English-speaking Chinese minority is typically concentrated in cities such as Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya, George Town, Ipoh and Malacca. The English speakers form a distinct subset within the larger Chinese community, as they are known to have a less Sinocentric mindset, and are rather Westernized in thinking and attitudes.
The 2.01 million strong Indian community in Malaysia is the smallest of the three main ethnic groups, comprising only 7.0% of the total population excluding non-citizens as of 2017. Indians were brought in to Malaysia during the British colonial period in late 18th century and early 19th centuries. They first came to Malaya for barter trade, especially in the former Straits Settlements of Singapore, Malacca and Penang. During the British colonial rule, Indian labourers, who were mostly south Indian Tamils from Tamil Nadu and to a lesser extent others in South India, were brought to Malaya to work on sugarcane and coffee plantations, rubber and oil palm estates, construction of buildings, railways, roads and bridges. English-educated Ceylon Tamils from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and Malayalees (from Kerala) were brought in to handle white-collar jobs. Kerala had the first mission schools in India and as such produced English educated administrators. Both ethnicities worked mainly as clerks, public servants, teachers, hospital assistants, doctors and in other skilled professions. As for the Punjabis from Punjab, most of them where enlisted in the army in Malaya while some handled the bullock-cart services in the country.
The Indians who came to Malaysia brought with them the Hindu religion, its unique temples called Kovils and the Sikhs with their Gurdwaras. Tamil cuisine is hugely popular. More than 85% of Malaysian Indians adhere to Hinduism. The Chitty community in Malacca are descendants of much earlier Indian immigrants who adopted local culture. Though they remain Hindu, the Chitties speak Bahasa Malaysia and women dress in sarong kebayas. The Hindu community celebrates two main festivals — Deepavali and Thaipusam — and many other smaller religious events each year. The ethnic Malayalees from Kerala celebrate the Onam festival (new year) and Vishu. The ethnic Punjabis celebrate Vasakhi, Lodi and Gurpurab. Majority of the Indians in Malaysia mainly speak Tamil while Telugu, Malayalam and Punjabi are also spoken.
A small minority of Malaysians do not fit into the broader ethnic groups. A small population exists of people of European and Middle Eastern descent. Europeans and Middle Easterners, who first arrived during the colonial period, assimilated through intermarriage into the Christian and Muslim communities. Most Eurasian Malaysians trace their ancestry to British, Dutch and/or Portuguese colonists, and there is a strong Kristang community in Malacca.
The Nepalese are mostly migrant workers from Nepal totalling 356,199 of which Malaysian Citizens are as little over 600 and lives in Rawang, Selangor. Originally brought by the British as bodyguards and security personnel, Nepali population consist of Rana, Chettri, Rai and Gurung clans. Other minorities include Filipinos and Burmese. A small number of ethnic Vietnamese from Cambodia and Vietnam settled in Malaysia as Vietnam War refugees.
There is no general consensus on the ethnic profiling of children of mixed parentage. Some choose to be identified according to paternal ethnicity while others simply think that they fall in the "Others" category. The majority choose to identify themselves as Malay as long as either parent is Malay, mainly due to the legal definition of Bumiputra and the privileges that comes along with it. Children of Chinese–Indian parentage are known as Chindians. Though this is not an official category in national census data, it is an increasing number especially in urban areas due to the increasing ethnic Chinese-Indian relationships.
Many other people from around the world have moved to Malaysia. There are over 70,000 Africans who have emigrated to Malaysia.
Malaysia contains speakers of 137 living languages, 41 of which are found in Peninsula Malaysia. The official language of Malaysia is known as Bahasa Malaysia, a standardised form of the Malay language. English was, for a protracted period, the de facto, administrative language of Malaysia, though its status was later rescinded. Despite that, English remains an active second language in many areas of Malaysian society and is taught as a compulsory subject in all public schools. Many businesses in Malaysia conduct their transactions in English, and it is sometimes used in official correspondence. Examinations are based on British English, although there has been much American influence through television.
Malaysian English, also known as Malaysian Standard English (MySE), is a form of English derived from British English, although there is little official use of the term, except with relation to education. Malaysian English also sees wide use in business, along with Manglish, which is a colloquial form of English with heavy Malay, Chinese languages and Tamil influences. Most Malaysians are conversant in English, although some are only fluent in the Manglish form. The Malaysian government officially discourages the use of Manglish.
Malaysian Chinese mostly speak Chinese languages from the southern provinces of China. The more common languages in Peninsular Malaysia are Hokkien, Cantonese, Hakka, Teochew, Hainanese, and Hokchiu. In Sarawak, most ethnic Chinese speak either Foochow or Hakka while Hakka predominates in Sabah except in the city of Sandakan where Cantonese is more often spoken despite the Hakka-origins of the Chinese residing there. Hokkien is mostly spoken in Penang and Kedah whereas Cantonese is mostly spoken in Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur. However, in Malaysia as a whole, the majority of ethnic Chinese now speak Mandarin, a non-native language from northern China (originally spoken by the Beijing elite and chosen as the official language of China), as their first language, while English is the first language for the rest. Some of the less-spoken languages such as Hainanese are facing extinction. As with Malaysian youths of other races, most Chinese youth are multilingual and can speak up to four languages with at least moderate fluency – their native Chinese language, Mandarin, English and Malay.
Tamil is the most common language spoken among Indians in Malaysia, especially in Peninsular Malaysia where they still maintain close cultural ties with their homeland Tamil Nadu & Ceylon . This is because there are far fewer Indians in East Malaysia than in the Peninsula. Tamil community from Ceylon have their own Tamil dialect known as Sri Lankan Tamil. Besides Tamil, Telugu is also spoken by the Telugu community. Malayalam Language is used by the Malayalee ethnic group. Punjabi language is commonly spoken by the Punjabi community. Besides that, Sinhala is used by a small number of Sinhalese community from Sri Lanka.
Citizens of Minangkabau, Bugis or Javanese origins, who can be classified "Malay" under constitutional definitions may also speak their respective ancestral tongues. The native tribes of East Malaysia have their own languages which are related to, but easily distinguishable from, Malay. The Iban is the main tribal language in Sarawak while Dusunic languages are spoken by the natives in Sabah. A variant of the Malay language that is spoken in Brunei is also commonly spoken in both states.
Some Malaysians have Caucasian ancestry and speak creole languages, such as the Portuguese-based Malaccan Creoles, and the Spanish-based Zamboangueño Chavacano. Thai is also spoken in some areas.
Citizenship is usually granted by lex soli. Citizenship in the states of Sabah and Sarawak in Malaysian Borneo are distinct from citizenship in Peninsular Malaysia for immigration purposes. Every citizen is issued a biometric smart chip identity card, known as "MyKad", at the age of 12, and must carry the card at all times.
Islam is the largest and state religion of Malaysia, although Malaysia is a multi-religious society and the Malaysian constitution guarantees religious freedom. Despite the recognition of Islam as the state religion, the first 4 prime ministers have stressed that Malaysia could function as a secular state. According to the Population and Housing Census 2010 figures, approximately 61.3 percent of the population practised Islam; 19.8 percent Buddhism; 9.2 percent Christianity; 6.3 percent Hinduism; and 1.3 percent practise Confucianism, Taoism and other traditional Chinese religions. Of the remainders, 0.4% was accounted for by other faiths, including animism, folk religion, and Sikhism, while 1.7% either reported having no religion or did not provide any information. The percentage population of Muslims has been steadily increasing – from 58.6% in 1991, 60.4% in 2000, to the 61.3% of the 2010 census.
The majority of Malaysian Indians follow Hinduism (84.5%), with a significant minority identifying as Christians (7.7%), Sikhs (3.9%), Muslims (3.8%), and 1,000 Jains. Most Malaysian Chinese follow a combination of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and ancestor-worship but, when pressed to specify their religion, will identify themselves as Buddhists. Statistics from the 2000 Census indicate that 75.9% of Malaysia's ethnic Chinese identify as Buddhist, with significant numbers of adherents following Taoism (10.6%) and Christianity (9.6%), along with small Hui-Muslim populations in areas like Penang. Christianity constitutes a slim majority of the non-Malay Bumiputra community (50.1%) with an additional 36.3% identifying as Muslims while 7.3% follow folk religion.
Islam is thought to have been brought to Malaysia around the 12th century by Arab traders. Since then the religion has become the predominant religion of the country and is recognised as the state's official religion. All ethnic Malays are considered Muslim by Article 160 of the Constitution of Malaysia.
Muslims are obliged to follow the decisions of Syariah courts in matters concerning their religion. The Islamic judges are expected to follow the Shafi`i legal school of Islam, which is the main madh'hab of Malaysia. The jurisdiction of Shariah courts is limited only to Muslims in matters such as marriage, inheritance, divorce, apostasy, religious conversion, and custody among others. No other criminal or civil offences are under the jurisdiction of the Shariah courts, which have a similar hierarchy to the Civil Courts. Despite being the supreme courts of the land, the Civil Courts (including the Federal Court) do not hear matters related to Islamic practices, as ratified by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in the late 1980s. Regulation of sexual activities among the Muslim population is strict; with laws prohibiting unmarried couples from occupying a secluded area or a confined space to prevent suspicion of acts forbidden in Islam.
Literacy rates (percentage of people over 15 who can read and write) are high in Malaysia, with an overall Literacy rate of 88.7%. Literacy rates are higher among males (92%) than females (85.4%)
Education in Malaysia is monitored by the federal government Ministry of Education. The education system features a non-compulsory kindergarten education followed by six years of compulsory primary education, and five years of optional secondary education. Most Malaysian children start schooling between the ages of three to six, in kindergarten.
Children begin primary schooling at the age of seven for a period of six years. Primary schools are divided into two categories, national primary schools and vernacular school. Vernacular schools ("Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan") use either Chinese or Tamil as the medium of instruction, whereas national primary schools ("Sekolah Kebangsaan") uses Bahasa Malaysia as the medium of instruction for subjects except English, Science and Mathematics.
Before progressing to the secondary level of education, pupils in Year 6 are required to sit the Primary School Achievement Test ("Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah", UPSR). A programme called First Level Assessment ("Penilaian Tahap Satu", PTS) taken during Primary Year 3 was abolished in 2001.
Secondary education in Malaysia is conducted in secondary schools ("Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan") for five years. National secondary schools use Malay as the main language of instruction. The only exceptions are Mathematics and Science and languages other than Malay, however this was only implemented in 2003, prior to which all non-language subjects were taught in Malay. At the end of Form Three, which is the third year, students are evaluated in the Form Three Assessment ("Pentaksiran Tingkatan Tiga", PT3). Secondary students no longer sit for PMR in Form Three that has been abolished in 2014. In the final year of secondary education (Form Five), students sit the Malaysian Certificate of Education ("Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia", SPM) examination, which is equivalent to the former British Ordinary or 'O' Levels. The government has decided to abandon the use of English in teaching maths and science and revert to Bahasa Malaysia, starting in 2012.
Malaysian national secondary schools are sub-divided into several types: National Secondary School ("Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan"), Religious Secondary School ("Sekolah Menengah Agama"), National-Type Secondary School (Sekolah Menengah Jenis Kebangsaan) (also referred to as Mission Schools), Technical Schools (Sekolah Menengah Teknik), Residential Schools and MARA Junior Science College (Maktab Rendah Sains MARA).
There are also 60 Chinese Independent High Schools in Malaysia, where most subjects are taught in Chinese. Chinese Independent High Schools are monitored and standardised by the United Chinese School Committees' Association of Malaysia (UCSCAM). However, unlike government schools, independent schools are autonomous. It takes six years to complete secondary education in Chinese independent schools. Students will sit a standardised test conducted by UCSCAM, which is known as the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) in Junior Middle 3 (equivalent to PMR) and Senior Middle 3 (equivalent to A level). A number of independent schools conduct classes in Malay and English in addition to Chinese, enabling the students to sit the PMR and SPM additionally.
Before the introduction of the matriculation system, students aiming to enter public universities had to complete an additional 18 months of secondary schooling in Form Six and sit the Malaysian Higher School Certificate ("Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia", STPM); equivalent to the British Advanced or 'A' levels. Since the introduction of the matriculation programme as an alternative to STPM in 1999, students who completed the 12-month programme in matriculation colleges (kolej matrikulasi in Malay) can enrol in local universities. However, in the matriculation system, only 10 per cent of the places are open to non-Bumiputra students.
There are a number of government-funded public universities in Malaysia, the most prominent of them being University of Malaya. Although the ethnic quota system favouring Malays at such universities was abolished in 2002, disparity of student intake still exists in these universities with underrepresentation of non-Bumiputras. Instead, private universities have sprung up to cater to the local population. These private universities are also gaining a reputation for international quality education and students from all over the world attend these universities. In addition, four reputable international universities have set up their branch campuses in Malaysia since 1998. A branch campus can be seen as an 'offshore campus' of the foreign university, which offers the same courses and awards as the main campus. Both local and international students can acquire these identical foreign qualifications in Malaysia at a lower fee. The foreign university branch campuses in Malaysia are: Monash University Malaysia Campus, Curtin University, Malaysia, Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus and University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus.
Students also have the option of enrolling in private tertiary institutions after secondary studies. Most institutions have educational links with overseas universities especially in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, allowing students to spend a portion of their course duration abroad as well as getting overseas qualifications. One such example is Tunku Abdul Rahman University College which partnered with Sheffield Hallam University and Coventry University.
In addition to the Malaysian National Curriculum, Malaysia has many international schools such as The International School Kuala Lumpur, Alice Smith School, Gardens International School, Cempaka Schools Malaysia, Kolej Tuanku Ja'afar...etc. These schools cater to the growing expatriate population in the country and the Malaysians who want a foreign curriculum, UK based curriculum, English education or Australian curriculum as well.
The Malaysian government places importance on the expansion and development of health care, putting 5% of the government social sector development budget into public health care—an increase of more than 47% over the previous figure. This has meant an overall increase of more than RM 2 billion. With a rising and ageing population, the Government wishes to improve in many areas including the refurbishment of existing hospitals, building and equipping new hospitals, expansion of the number of polyclinics, and improvements in training and expansion of telehealth. A major problem with the health care sector is the lack of medical centres for rural areas, which the government is trying to counter through the development of and expansion of a system called "tele-primary care". Another issue is the overperscription of drugs, though this has decreased in recent years. Since 2009 the Malaysian Health Ministry has increased its efforts to overhaul the system and attract more foreign investment.
The country generally has an efficient and widespread system of health care. It implements a universal healthcare system, which co-exists with the private healthcare system. Infant mortality rate in 2009 was 6 deaths per 1000 births, and life expectancy at birth in 2009 was 75 years. Malaysia has the highest levels of obesity among ASEAN countries.
The Malaysian health care system requires doctors to perform a compulsory three years service with public hospitals to ensure that the manpower in these hospitals is maintained. Recently foreign doctors have also been encouraged to take up employment in Malaysia. There is still, however, a significant shortage in the medical workforce, especially of highly trained specialists; thus, certain medical care and treatment are available only in large cities. Recent efforts to bring many facilities to other towns have been hampered by lack of expertise to run the available equipment.
The majority of private hospitals are in urban areas and, unlike many of the public hospitals, are equipped with the latest diagnostic and imaging facilities. Private hospitals have not generally been seen as an ideal investment—it has often taken up to ten years before companies have seen any profits. However, the situation has now changed and companies are now exploring this area again, corresponding with the increased number of foreigners entering Malaysia for medical care and the recent government focus on developing the health tourism industry. The Government has also been trying to promote Malaysia as a health care destination, regionally and internationally.
Kuala Lumpur is the capital and largest city of Malaysia. Although many executive and judicial branches of the federal government have moved to Putrajaya, Kuala Lumpur is the seat of the Parliament of Malaysia, making it the country's legislative capital. It is also the economic and business centre of the country, and is a primate city. Kuala Lumpur is also rated as a global city, and is the only global city in Malaysia. Along with Subang Jaya, Klang, Petaling Jaya, Shah Alam, Kajang-Sungai Chua, Ampang Jaya and Selayang it forms the country's largest and most important urban area, the Klang Valley.
George Town, the capital city of Penang, is the second largest city, with nearly 710,000 inhabitants as of 2010. It used to be Malaysia's largest and only city until the 1970s when Kuala Lumpur became the capital. Today, the city serves as the economic, financial, logistics and medical tourism hub in the northern region of Malaysia. Together with the surrounding towns including Butterworth, Sungai Petani, Kulim, Bandar Baharu and Parit Buntar, it forms Greater Penang, the nation's second largest conurbation with a population of about 2.5 million.
The third largest urban area in Malaysia is situated at the country's southern end, comprising the twin cities of Johor Bahru and Iskandar Puteri, along with Pasir Gudang and Kulai. Located next to Singapore, it is also an important industrial, tourism and commercial hub for southern Malaysia.
Other major cities in Malaysia include Ipoh, Kota Kinabalu and Kuching.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19110
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Politics of Malaysia
Politics of Malaysia takes place in the framework of a federal representative democratic constitutional monarchy, in which the Yang di-Pertuan Agong is head of state and the Prime Minister of Malaysia is the head of government. Executive power is exercised by the federal government and the 13 state governments. Federal legislative power is vested in the federal parliament and the 13 state assemblies. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature, though the executive maintains a certain level of influence in the appointment of judges to the courts.
The Constitution of Malaysia is codified and the system of government is based on the Westminster system. The hierarchy of authority in Malaysia, in accordance to the Federal Constitution, stipulates the three branches (administrative components) of the Malaysian government as consisting of the Executive, Judiciary and Legislative branch. Whereas, the Parliament consists of the "Dewan Negara" (Upper House/Senate) and "Dewan Rakyat" (Lower House/House of Representatives).
Malaysia has had a multi-party system since the first direct election of the Federal Legislative Council of Malaya in 1955 on a first-past-the-post basis. The ruling party was the Alliance Party () coalition and from 1973 onwards, its successor, the Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition. Together with its predecessor, the Barisan Nasional (BN) government served for 61 years and was one of the world's longest serving governments until it lost power to the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition in the 14th general election that was held on 9 May 2018.
The Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition currently consists of Democratic Action Party (DAP), People's Justice Party (PKR) and National Trust Party (Amanah) with Sabah Heritage Party (Warisan) and United Progressive Kinabalu Organization (UPKO) as confidence-and-supply partner. The coalition governed the country from 10 May 2018 until 24 February 2020, when Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad resigned as Prime Minister of Malaysia. While the opposition is predominantly made up of National Front (BN), Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), Sarawak Parties Alliance (GPS), Sabah United Alliance (GBS), Sarawak United Party (PSB), and other smaller parties.
Although Malaysian politics has been relatively stable, critics allege that "the government, ruling party, and administration are intertwined with few countervailing forces." However, since the 8 March 2008 General Election, the media's coverage on the country's politics has noticeably increased. After the 14th general elections, media freedom was promised by the new government of Malaysia.
The Economist Intelligence Unit rated Malaysia a "flawed democracy" in 2016. However, Malaysia was a runner up to the Economist 2018 "Country of the Year" in 2018 due to the peaceful transfer of power following the 14th general elections, losing out at least partly due to Mahathir Mohamad's seeming reluctance to relax the country's divisive racial politics or to hand over power, as agreed, to Anwar Ibrahim.
Early organised political movements in Malaysia were organised along regional and ethnic groups and were not political parties in the modern sense. They generally were loose alliances of interest groups and individuals primarily concerned with social welfare, social progress and religious reform among the Muslim Malay communities similar to interest groups and civil society organisations of today.
Religious reformers played a large role in developing and disseminating ideas with magazines and periodicals like "al-Imam" published in Singapore by Tahir Jalaluddin between 1906 and 1908, and "al-Munir" published in Penang by Abdullah Ahmad between 1911 and 1916. These in turn were primarily influenced by the Egyptian Islamic reform magazine, "al-Manar" published in Cairo by Rashid Rida from 1898 to 1936. While these publications were primarily concerned with the Islamic religion, it also touched extensively on the social, political and economic conditions of the Malays.
One of the first such movements was the New Hope Society () that was established in Johor Bahru in 1916. On 14 September 1923, a movement was established in Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt by students from British Malaya and the Dutch East Indies known as the Al-Jam'iyah Al-Khairiyah lit-tholabah Al-Azhariyah Al-Jawiyah (renamed in 1937 to the Indonesia Malaya Convention or "Perhimpunan Indonesia Malaya"; PERPINDOM). Composed primarily of students influenced by the Young Turks movement and later the Muslim Brotherhood, the movement encouraged intentional political and religious discourse through periodicals like Osman Abdullah's "Seruan Al-Azhar" ("Al-Azhar Clarion") and "Pilehan Timur" ("Oriental Choice").
The Sultan Idris Training College for Malay teachers in Tanjung Malim was fertile ground for the exchange of ideas. The establishment of the Selangor Malay Teachers Association () in 1921 by Muhammad Yusof paved the way for similar organisations to be set up in the other Federated Malay States and a magazine known as "Majalah Guru" ("Teacher's Magazine") was published in 1923. This magazine allowed for the discussion of larger socio-economic issues as well political issues, establishing itself as one of the influences in the development of Malay nationalism.
Various self-help societies like the Maharani Company in Muar, Johor and the Serikat Pembaikan Hidup () organised by Mohamad Eunos Abdullah of the Singapore Malay Union () established co-operatives and communes to help improve the socio-economic conditions of the Malay peasants and smallholders. They too utilised newspapers and periodicals like the Maharani Company published "Perjumpaan Melayu" ("Malay Convergence") to disseminate ideas and encourage discourse on issues pertaining to the social, political and economic conditions of the Malay people.
The Malay Union (; KM) was established in 1926 by Mohamad Eunos Abdullah, Tengku Kadir Ali and Embok Suloh with the aim of increasing the role of Malays in public life, upholding Malay interests with the colonial authorities, and promote higher and technical education for Malays. Eunos himself was a Justice of Peace, a member of the Muslim Advisory Board set up by the colonial administration during World War I and a member of the Singapore Municipal Council. In his capacity as the chairman of the KM, he became the first Malay member of the Legislative Council of the Straits Settlements. One of the first issues championed by the KM was the appeal for land to be set aside for a Malay settlement. The appeal was granted and a sum of $ 700,000 was set aside for the KM to purchase and develop the land. This settlement has evolved and is now part of the Eunos neighbourhood in Singapore.
The KM also became the catalyst for the establishment of similar organisations in the other states of the British Malaya such as the Penang Malay Association (founded in 1927) and the Perak Malay Association (founded in 1937). People associated with the KM included the first President of Singapore, Yusof Ishak. The KM survived World War II and entered into a political coalition with the United Malays National Organisation and the Malayan Chinese Association to form the Singapore Alliance Party. It however eventually faded away with the electoral defeats of the Alliance in the 1955 legislative elections in Singapore.
The first political party to be organised with a pan-Malayan outlook was the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) established in 1930. The CPM was originally set up as a branch of the Comintern supervised by the Far Eastern Bureau of the Communist Party of China in 1926. It was then known as the South Seas Communist Party. The fraternal Communist Party of Indonesia (established in 1924) was by then underground or in exile due to their abortive revolt in 1926. This resulted in the CPM being almost exclusively dominated by people of Chinese descent. Efforts to establish a broader based representation were made especially in the 1935 representative conferences between the CPM and the General Labour Union as well as the establishment of contact with Communist cells in Siam and the Dutch East Indies in 1936. Nonetheless, the CPM remained an organisation that was predominantly Chinese in composition until the Japanese occupation of Malaya which saw a larger participation of people from other ethnicities.
The Young Malay Union (; KMM) was established in Kuala Lumpur in 1938 under the leadership of Ibrahim Yaacob. While registered as a social organisation working to improve Malay youths in sports, education, agriculture, health and other recreational pursuits, the primary aim of the KMM was to struggle for the political independence of all the Malayan states from Britain and oppose British imperialism.
While gaining significant support from the larger Malay community, the KMM failed to gain support from the Malay aristocrats and bureaucracy and on the eve of the Japanese invasion of Malaya, more than 100 KMM members were arrested by the authorities for collaboration.
All were released after the fall of Singapore in February 1942. On 14 January 1942, a KMM delegation led by vice-president, Mustapha Hussain, met with the Japanese authorities to negotiate for the independence of Malaya. The Japanese authorities instead disbanded KMM and established the Pembela Tanah Ayer (also known as the "Malai Giyu Gun" or by its Malay acronym PETA) militia in its stead.
Most who joined PETA were also part of the underground KMM Youth League who continued to struggle for an independent Malaya and some cooperated with the CPM sponsored Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army and other anti-Japanese guerilla units like Force 136 and Wataniah.
With the surrender of Japan in August 1945, former KMM cadres formed the nucleus of the emerging political movements like the Malay Nationalist Party, Angkatan Pemuda Insaf, and Angkatan Wanita Sedar.
Malaysia's predominant political party, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), held power in the coalition known as the Barisan Nasional (formerly the Alliance) with other parties since Malaya's independence in 1957 until 2018. In 1973, an alliance of communally based parties was replaced with a broader coalition – the Barisan Nasional — composed of fourteen parties. Today the Barisan Nasional coalition has three prominent members – the UMNO, MCA (Malaysian Chinese Association) and MIC (Malaysian Indian Congress). The current Prime Minister of Malaysia is from Pakatan Harapan (PH) who is the ex-UMNO leader, marking the first time the post is occupied by a non-UMNO party member.
In addition to the UMNO and other member parties of the Barisan Nasional, three main parties (and several smaller parties) compete in national and state-level elections in Malaysia. The three most competitive opposition parties are the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (Parti Islam se-Malaysia, or PAS) and the Barisan Nasional Coalition. The Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS) promotes a more Islamist political agenda, the BN Coalition is rather critical about the current ruling government since the May 2018 General Elections.
The political process in Malaysia from 1957 to 2018 has generally been described as taking the form of "consociationalism" whereby "communal interests are resolved in the framework of a grand coalition". The executive branch is described as tending to dominate political activity, with the Prime Minister's office being in a position to preside "over an extensive and ever growing array of powers to take action against individuals or organisations," and "facilitate business opportunities". Critics of the ruling government generally agree that although authoritarianism in Malaysia preceded the administration of Mahathir bin Mohamad, it was he who "carried the process forward substantially". Legal scholars have suggested that the political "equation for religious and racial harmony" is rather fragile, and that this "fragility stems largely from the identification of religion with race coupled with the political primacy of the Malay people colliding with the aspiration of other races for complete equality."
During the terms of Dr. Mahathir Mohamad as the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia, many constitutional amendments were made. For example, the Senate could only delay a bill from taking effect and the Monarch no longer had veto powers on proposed bills. Also, the 26 state senators were no longer the majority as another 44 senators were appointed by the King at the advice of the Prime Minister. The amendments also limited the powers of the judiciary to what parliament grants them.
In early September 1998, Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad dismissed Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and accused Anwar of immoral and corrupt conduct. Anwar said his ousting was actually owed to political differences and led a series of demonstrations advocating political reforms. Later in September, Anwar was arrested, beaten while in prison (by among others, the chief of police at the time), and charged with corrupt practices, in both legal and moral contexts, charges including obstruction of justice and sodomy. In April 1999, he was convicted of four counts of corruption and sentenced to six years in prison. In August 2000, Anwar was convicted of one count of sodomy and sentenced to nine years to run consecutively after his earlier six-year sentence. Both trials were viewed by domestic and international observers as unfair. Anwar's conviction on sodomy has since been overturned, and having completed his six-year sentence for corruption, he has since been released from prison. In the November 1999 general election, the Barisan Nasional returned to power with three-fourths of the parliamentary seats, but UMNO's seats dropped from 94 to 72. The opposition, the Barisan Alternatif coalition, led by the Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS), increased its seats to 42. PAS retained control of the state of Kelantan and won the additional state of Terengganu.
The former 6th Prime Minister of Malaysia was Dato' Seri Mohd. Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak. He took office following the retirement of Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (colloquially known as "Pak Lah") on April 2009. Mahathir Mohamad took office as the Prime Minister of Malaysia under the new Pakatan Harapan government on 10 May 2018.
In the March 2004 general election, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi led Barisan Nasional to a landslide victory, in which Barisan Nasional recaptured the state of Terengganu. The coalition controlled 92% of the seats in Parliament. In 2005, Mahathir stated that "I believe that the country should have a strong government but not too strong. A two-thirds majority like I enjoyed when I was Prime Minister is sufficient but a 90% majority is too strong. ... We need an opposition to remind us if we are making mistakes. When you are not opposed you think everything you do is right."
The national media is largely controlled by the government and by political parties in the Barisan Nasional/National Front ruling coalition and the opposition has little access to the media. The print media is controlled by the Government through the requirement of obtaining annual publication licences under the Printing and Presses Act. In 2007, a government agency – the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission – issued a directive to all private television and radio stations to refrain from broadcasting speeches made by opposition leaders.
The official state ideology is the Rukunegara, which has been described as encouraging "respect for a pluralistic, multireligious and multicultural society", but political scientists have argued that the slogan of "Bangsa, Agama, Negara" (race, religion, nation) used by UMNO constitutes an unofficial ideology too. Both ideologies have "generally been used to reinforce a conservative political ideology, one that is Malay-centred."
Executive power is vested in the cabinet led by the prime minister; the Malaysian constitution stipulates that the prime minister must be a member of the lower house of parliament who, in the opinion of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, commands a majority in parliament. The cabinet is chosen from among members of both houses of Parliament and is responsible to that body.
In recent years, the former opposition, now government has been campaigning for freer and fairer elections within Malaysia. On 10 November 2007, a mass rally, called the 2007 Bersih Rally, took place in the Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur at 3 pm to demand for clean and fair elections. The gathering was organised by BERSIH, a coalition comprising political parties and civil society groups(NGOs), and drew supporters from all over the country.
On 11 November, the Malaysian government briefly detained de facto opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on Tuesday and arrested a human rights lawyer and about a dozen opposition leaders, amid growing complaints that the government was cracking down on dissent. Dozens of policemen blocked the main entrance to the parliament building in Kuala Lumpur to foil an opposition-led rally. The rally was carried out along with the attempt to submit a protest note to Parliament over a government-backed plan to amend a law that would extend the tenure of the Election Commission chief, whom the opposition claims is biased.
The Malaysian government intensified efforts on 6 March 2008 to portray opposition figure Anwar Ibrahim as a political turncoat, days ahead of the 2008 Malaysian general election on 8 March 2008 because he posed a legitimate threat to the ruling coalition. Campaigning wrapped up 7 March 2008 for general elections that could see gains for Malaysia's opposition amid anger over race and religion among minority Chinese and Indians. Malaysians voted 8 March 2008 in parliamentary elections. Election results showed that the ruling government suffered a setback when it failed to obtain two-thirds majority in parliament, and five out of 12 state legislatures were won by the opposition parties. Reasons for the setback of the ruling party, which has retained power since the nation declared independence in 1957, were rising inflation, crime and ethnic tensions.
2018 marks the first time since independence in 1957 that a non-UMNO party namely PH formed the federal government. PH leader Anwar Ibrahim was freed after receiving a royal pardon from the king and is designated to take over as PM from Mahathir Mohamed.
The monarch of Malaysia is the "Yang di-Pertuan Agong" (YDPA), commonly referred to as the Supreme King of Malaysia. Malaysia is a constitutional elective monarchy, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong is selected for a five-year terms from among the nine Sultans of the Malay states. The other four states that do not have monarch kings, are ruled by governors. The nine sultans and four governors together make up the Conference of Rulers who elect the Yang di-Pertuan Agong. The position has to date been, by informal agreement, based on systematic rotation between the nine sultans; the order was originally based on seniority.
According to the Federal Constitution of Malaysia, the YDPA is considered as the Supreme Head of the Federation (Article 32). As a constitutional head, the YDPA is to act on the advice of the Prime Minister (Article 40). The YDPA or monarch king basically has three broad power vested in him (Jeong, 2012):
The YDPA is also the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces (i.e. Police, Army) in the Federation of Malaysia (Article 41). He is also the head of the Islamic faith in Malaysia.
Malaysia is a federation of 13 states and 3 federal territories. The system of government in Malaysia is closely modelled on that of Westminster parliamentary system, a legacy of British colonial rule. In practice however, more power is vested in the executive branch of government than in the legislative, and the judiciary has been weakened by sustained attacks by the government during the Mahathir era. Parliamentary elections are held at least once every five years, usually concurrent with state elections for state assemblies except for Sabah (until 2004) and Sarawak.
Legislative power is divided between federal and state legislatures.
The bicameral parliament consists of the lower house, the House of Representatives or "Dewan Rakyat" (literally the "Chamber of the People"); and the upper house, the Senate or "Dewan Negara" (literally the "Chamber of the Nation"). All seventy Senate members sit for three-year terms (to a maximum of two terms); twenty-six are elected by the thirteen state assemblies, and forty-four are appointed by the king based on the advice of the Prime Minister.
The 222 members of the Dewan Rakyat are elected from single-member districts by universal adult suffrage. Parliament has a maximum mandate of five years by law. The king may dissolve parliament at any time, and usually does so upon the advice of the Prime Minister. General elections must be held within sixty days of the dissolution of parliament. In practice, this has meant that elections have been held every three to five years at the discretion of the Prime Minister.
Legislative power is divided between federal and state legislatures. Malaysia has two sources of law. The national constitution, the nation's supreme law, can be amended by a two-thirds majority in parliament. (Since its formation, the BN has never lacked the necessary two-thirds until 8 March 2008's General Election) The second source of law is sharia (Islamic law), which applies only to Muslims. The federal government has little input into the administration of sharia; it falls to the states to implement Islamic law, and interpretations vary from state to state. The parliament follows a multi-party system and the governing body is elected through a first-past-the-post system.
Executive power is vested in the cabinet led by the prime minister; the Malaysian constitution stipulates that the prime minister must be a member of the Lower House of parliament who, in the opinion of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (YDPA), commands a majority in parliament. The cabinet is chosen from among members of both houses of Parliament and is responsible to that body.
The Executive branch of the government consists of the Prime Minister as the head of the government, followed by the various ministers of the Cabinet. It formulates various socio-economic policies and development plans, for the development of the country as a whole. The Executive has the power and authority to generate revenues through the collection of various taxes, levies, fines, summons, custom duties, and fees, to name some, from the general public.
The judiciary is theoretically independent of the executive and the legislature, although supporters of the government hold many judicial positions. The highest court in the judicial system is the Federal Court, followed by the Court of Appeal, and two High Courts, one for Peninsular Malaysia, and one for East Malaysia. The subordinate courts in each of these jurisdictions include Sessions Courts, Magistrates' Courts, and Courts for Children. Malaysia also has a Special Court to hear cases brought by or against all Royalty.
The Special Court, established in 1993 to hear cases brought by or against Ruler. Before its establishment, Rulers were immune from any proceedings brought against them in their personal capacity. Rulers include the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (the elected Monarch), and the heads of state of Malaysia's component states.
Separate from the civil courts are the Syariah Courts, which decide on cases which involve Malaysian Muslims. These courts run parallel to the normal court system, and are undergoing reforms that include the first ever appointment of female judges. Debate exists in Malaysia over whether the country should be secular or Islamic. Some state governments controlled by the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, including that of Terengganu, have passed Islamic laws, but these have not gone into effect due to opposition from the federal government.
Malaysia's legal system is based on English Common Law, alongside a Sharia court system for Malaysian Muslims. The Federal Court reviews decisions referred from the Court of Appeals; it has original jurisdiction in constitutional matters and in disputes between states or between the federal government and a state. Peninsular Malaysia and the East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak each has a high court.
The federal government has authority over external affairs, defence, internal security, justice (except civil law cases among Malays or other Muslims and other indigenous peoples, adjudicated under Islamic and traditional law), federal citizenship, finance, commerce, industry, communications, transportation, and other matters.
Each state has a unicameral state legislative chamber () whose members are elected from single-member constituencies. State governments are led by Chief Ministers ("Menteri Besar" in Malay states or "Ketua Menteri" in states without hereditary rulers), who are state assembly members from the majority party in the Dewan Undangan Negeri. They advise their respective sultans or governors. In each of the states with a hereditary ruler, the Chief Minister is required to be an ethnic Malay, appointed by the Sultan upon the recommendation of the Prime Minister. Parliamentary elections are held at least once every five years, with the last general election being in April 2013. Registered voters of age 21 and above may vote for the members of the House of Representatives and, in most of the states, for the state legislative chamber. Voting is not mandatory.
Although Malaysia is a federal state, political scientists have suggested that its "federalism is highly centralised":
Race plays a large role in Malaysian politics, and many Malaysian political parties are ethnically based. The Government's New Economic Policy (NEP) and the National Development Policy (NDP) which superseded it, were implemented to advance the standing of "Bumiputera" Malaysians. The policies provide preferential treatment to Malays over non-Malays in employment, education, scholarships, business, and access to cheaper housing and assisted savings. While improving in the economic position of Malays, it is a source of resentment amongst non-Malays. The race-based politics practiced by UMNO has been widely criticised as racist and discriminatory. Prime Minister Dato Sri Mohd Najib Tun Razak has claimed to attempt to close racial divides through the 1Malaysia initiative. This, however, has not helped much.
The origin of race based politics can be traced back to independence of Malaysia from United Kingdom, who wanted all citizens of Malaysia to be equal upon independence, instead of dominance by Malays. This caused the political parties of the three major races at the time, the UMNO (representing Malays), the MCA (representing Chinese), and the MIC (representing Indians), to join and form the Alliance Party.
Students are not allowed to be involved in politics, due to the University and University College Act. A higher interest in the political process led to a slowdown in outbound corporate travel in anticipation of the general election in the first half of 2013, where many travellers postponed travel to ensure they had the chance to cast their votes.
Malaysia participates in international politics and engages in formal relationships with international bodies as well as with foreign states adopting various policies. Malaysia's participation in international politics also affects domestic politics for example the Israel–Malaysia relations.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19111
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Economy of Malaysia
The economy of Malaysia is the third largest in Southeast Asia, after Indonesia and Thailand, and is the 35th largest economy in the world. Labour productivity in Malaysia is significantly higher than in neighbouring Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines or Vietnam due to a high density of knowledge-based industries and adoption of cutting edge technology for manufacturing and digital economy. According to the Global Competitiveness Report 2019, the Malaysian economy is the 27th most competitive country in the world.
Malaysian citizens enjoy affluent lifestyle compared to almost all other ASEAN countries, in which only Singapore and Brunei managed to rival over. Their standard of living are closer to the Western Europe countries such as Portugal and Spain, and closely resembled the developed part of Eastern Europe such as Poland, Latvia, and Czech Republic. This is due to a fast growing export oriented economy, a relatively low national income tax, highly affordable local food, and transport fuel, as well as a fully subsidized single payer public-healthcare. Moreover, social welfare benefit with direct cash benefit transfer called Cost of Living Assistance is also in place since 2011. With an income per capita of 34,657 PPP Dollars (IMF World Economic Outlook, March 2020) , Malaysia is the third wealthiest nation in Southeast Asia after the smaller city-states of Singapore and Brunei. Malaysia has a newly industrialised market economy, which is relatively open and state-oriented. The Malaysian economy is highly robust and diversified with the export value of high-tech products in 2015 standing at US$57.258 billion, the second highest after Singapore in ASEAN. Malaysia exports the second largest volume and value of palm oil products globally after Indonesia.
Despite government policies to increase income per capita in order to hasten the progress towards high income country by 2020, Malaysia's growth in wages has been very slow, lagging behind the OECD standard. Academic research by the IMF and World Bank have repeatedly called for structural reform and endogenous innovation to move the country up the value chain of manufacturing into allowing Malaysia to escape the current middle income trap. Due to a heavy reliance on oil exports for central government revenue, the currency fluctuations have been very volatile, noticeably during the supply glut and oil price collapse in 2015. However the government stepped up measures to increase revenue by introducing the Sales and Service Tax (SST) at 6% rate to reduce deficits and meet federal debt obligations.
As one of three countries that control the Strait of Malacca, international trade plays a very significant role in Malaysia's economy. At one time, it was the largest producer of tin, rubber and palm oil in the world.
Manufacturing has a large influence in the country's economy, accounting for over 40% of the GDP. Malaysia is also the world's largest Islamic banking and financial centre.
In the 1970s, Malaysia began to imitate the four Asian Tiger economies (South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore) and committed itself to a transition from being reliant on mining and agriculture to an economy that depends more on manufacturing. In the 1970s, the predominantly mining and agricultural based Malaysian economy began a transition towards a more multi-sector economy. Since the 1980s the industrial sector has led Malaysia's growth. High levels of investment played a significant role in this. With Japanese investment, heavy industries flourished and in a matter of years, Malaysian exports became the country's primary growth engine. Malaysia consistently achieved more than 7% GDP growth along with low inflation in the 1980s and the 1990s.
In 1991, former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir bin Mohamad outlined his ideal, Vision 2020 in which Malaysia would become a self-sufficient industrialised nation by 2020. Tan Sri Nor Mohamed, a government minister, said Malaysia could attain developed country status in 2018 if the country's growth remains constant or increases.
Malaysia experienced an economic boom and underwent rapid development during the late 20th century and has GDP per capita (nominal) of US$11,062.043 in 2014, and is considered a newly industrialised country. In 2009, the PPP GDP was US$383.6 billion, about half the 2014 amount, and the PPP per capita GDP was US$8,100, about one third the 2014 amount.
In 2014, the Household Income Survey undertaken by the government indicated that there were 7 million households in Malaysia, with an average of 4.3 members in each household. The average household income of Malaysia increased by 18% to RM5,900 a month, compared to RM5,000 in 2012.
According to a HSBC report in 2012, Malaysia will become the world's 21st largest economy by 2050, with a GDP of $1.2 trillion (Year 2000 dollars) and a GDP per capita of $29,247 (Year 2000 dollars). The report also says "The electronic equipment, petroleum, and liquefied natural gas producer will see a substantial increase in income per capita. Malaysian life expectancy, relatively high level of schooling, and above average fertility rate will help in its rapid expansion." Viktor Shvets, the managing director in Credit Suisse, has said "Malaysia has all the right ingredients to become a developed nation."
Prior to the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the Malaysian ringgit was an internationalised currency, which was freely traded around the world. Just before the crisis, the Ringgit was traded RM2.50 at the dollar. Due to speculative activities, the Ringgit fell to as much as RM4.10 to the dollar in matter of weeks. Bank Negara Malaysia, the nation's central bank, decided to impose capital controls to prevent the outflow of the Ringgit in the open market. The Ringgit became non-internationalised and a traveller had to declare to the central bank if taking out more than RM10,000 out of the country and the Ringgit itself was pegged at RM3.80 to the US dollar.
The fixed exchange rate was abandoned in favour of the floating exchange rate in July 2005, hours after China announced the same move. At this point, the Ringgit was still not internationalised. The Ringgit continued to strengthen to 3.18 to the dollar by March 2008 and appreciated as low as 2.94 to the dollar in May 2011. Meanwhile, many aspects of capital control have been slowly relaxed by Bank Negara Malaysia. However, the government continues to not internationalise the Ringgit. The government stated that the Ringgit will be internationalised once it is ready.
Bank Negara Malaysia for the time being, uses interest rate targeting. The Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) is their policy instrument, and is used to guide the short term interbank rates which will hopefully influence inflation and economic growth.
Tun Abdul Razak, who was then the Prime Minister, implemented the affirmative action policy named as New Economic Policy soon after 13 May Incident in 1969. Prior to the incident, the poverty rates among Malays were extremely high (at 65%) as was discontent between races, particularly towards the Chinese, who controlled 74% of the economy at the time. Through NEP, the Bumiputeras majority are given priority and special privileges in housing developments, scholarship admission and also for ownership of publicly listed companies.
The Malaysian New Economic Policy was created in 1971 with the aim of bringing Malays a 30% share of the economy of Malaysia and eradicating poverty amongst Malays, primarily through encouraging enterprise ownership by Bumiputeras. After 40 years of the program, bumiputra equity ownership rose to 23% worth RM167.7 billion in 2010 against 2.4% in 1970.
The NEP is accused of creating an oligarchy, and creating a 'subsidy mentality'. Political parties such as Parti Keadilan Rakyat and Democratic Action Party have proposed a new policy which will be equal for every Malaysian, regardless of race. When the Democratic Action Party was elected in the state of Penang in 2008, it announced that it will do away with the NEP, claiming that it "... breeds nepotism, corruption and systemic inefficiency".
Wolfgang Kasper, a professor of economics at University of New South Wales, and once an adviser to Malaysia's Finance Ministry, criticised the NEP, saying that "NEP handouts (are) making Malays lazy, corrupt & swell-headed. Worst of all, it keeps them poor." He also criticised the Federal Government giving cash-handouts and financial aid instead of providing equal access to education to help the marginalised poor to lift their income status.
On 21 April 2009, the prime minister Najib Tun Razak has announced the liberalisation of 27 services sub-sector by abolishing the 30% bumiputera requirement. The move is seen as the government efforts to increase investment in the service sector of the economy. According to the premier, many more sectors of the economy will be liberalised.
On 30 June 2009, the prime minister announces further liberation moves including the dismantling of the Bumiputera equity quotas and repealing the guidelines of the Foreign Investment Committee, which was responsible to monitor foreign shareholding in Malaysian companies. However, any Malaysian companies that wishes to list in Malaysia would still need to offer 50 percent of public shareholding spread to Bumiputera investors.
The Malaysian government subsidises and controls prices on a lot of essential items to keep the prices low. Prices of items such as palm oil, cooking oil, petrol, flour, bread, rice and other essentials have been kept under market prices to keep cost of living low. As of 2009, 22 per cent of government expenditures were subsidies, with petrol subsidies alone taking up 12 per cent.
Since 2010, the government has been gradually reforming Malaysia's subsidy system, via a series of reductions in subsidies for fuel and sugar to improve government finances and to improve economic efficiency. As a result, in December 2014, the government officially ended all fuel subsidies and implemented a 'managed float' system, taking advantage of low oil prices at the time, potentially saving the government almost RM20 billion ringgit (US$5.97 billion) annually.
The government owns and operates several sovereign wealth funds that invest in local companies and also foreign companies. One such fund is Khazanah Nasional Berhad which was established in 1993, and as of 31 December 2013 has US$41 billion worth of assets. The fund invests in major companies in Malaysia such as CIMB in the banking sector, UEM Group in the construction sector, Telekom Malaysia and Axiata in the communications industry, Malaysia Airports and Malaysia Airlines in the aerospace industry, as well as Tenaga Nasional in the energy sector
Another fund that is owned by the Malaysian government is the Employees Provident Fund which is a retirement fund that as of 31 March 2014, has an asset size of RM597 billion. (US$184 billion), making it the fourth largest pension fund in Asia and seventh largest in the world. Like Khazanah Nasional, the EPF invests and sometimes owns several major companies in Malaysia such as RHB Bank. EPF investment is diversified over a number of sectors but almost 40% of their investment are in the services sector.
Permodalan Nasional Berhad is another major fund manager controlled by the Malaysian Government. It offers capital guaranteed mutual funds such as Amanah Saham Bumiputera and Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020 which are open only to Malaysian and in some cases, Bumiputeras.
Although the federal government promotes private enterprise and ownership in the economy, the economic direction of the country is heavily influenced by the government through five years development plans since independence. The economy is also influenced by the government through agencies such as the Economic Planning Unit and government-linked wealth funds such as Khazanah Nasional Berhad, Employees Provident Fund and Permodalan Nasional Berhad.
The government's development plans, called the Malaysian Plan, currently the Tenth Malaysia Plan, started in 1950 during the British colonial rule. The plans were largely centred around accelerating the growth of the economy by selectively investing in selective sectors of the economy and building infrastructure to support said sectors. For example, in the current national plan, three sectors – agriculture, manufacturing and services, will receive special attention to promote the transition to high value-added activities in the respective areas.
Government-linked investment vehicles such as Khazanah Nasional Berhad, Employees Provident Fund and Permodalan Nasional Berhad invest in and sometimes own major companies in major sectors of the Malaysian economy.
The following table shows the main economic indicators in 1980–2017. Inflation below 5% is in green.
The only legal tender in Malaysia is the Malaysian ringgit. As of 10 of March 2020, the Ringgit is traded at MYR 4.19 at the US dollar.
The ringgit has not been internationalised since September 1998, an effect due to the 1997 Asian financial crisis in which the central bank imposed capital controls on the currency, due to speculative short-selling of the ringgit. As a part of series of capital controls, the currency was pegged between September 1998 to 21 July 2005 at MYR 3.80 to the dollar after the value of the ringgit dropped from MYR 2.50 per USD to, at one point, MYR 4.80 per USD.
In recent years, Bank Negara Malaysia has begun to relax certain rules to the capital controls although the currency itself is still not traded internationally yet. According to the Bank Governor, the ringgit will be internationalised when it's ready.
On September 2010, in an interview with CNBC, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, who is the then Prime Minister of Malaysia and also held the position of Finance Minister then, said that the government is open to open up the ringgit to off shore trading if the move will help the economy. He further added that before such a move can be made, it will ensure that rules and regulation will be in place so the currency will not be abused.
Malaysia is well-endowed with natural resources in areas such as agriculture, forestry and minerals. It is an exporter of natural and agricultural resources, the most valuable exported resource being petroleum. In the agricultural sector, Malaysia is one of the top exporters of natural rubber and palm oil, which together with timber and timber products, cocoa, pepper, pineapple and tobacco dominate the growth of the sector. As of 2011, the percentage arable land in Malaysia is 5.44%. Croplands consists of 17.49% while other land uses consists of 77.07%. As of 2009, irrigated land covers 3,800 km². Total renewable water resources make up 580 cubic km as of 2011.
Tin and petroleum are the two main mineral resources that are of major significance in the Malaysian economy. Malaysia was once the world's largest producer of tin until the collapse of the tin market in the early 1980s. In the 19th and 20th century, tin played a predominant role in the Malaysian economy, with Malaysia accounting for over 31% of global output. It was only in 1972 that petroleum and natural gas took over from tin as the mainstay of the mineral extraction sector. Other minerals of some importance or significance include copper, bauxite, iron-ore and coal together with industrial minerals like clay, kaolin, silica, limestone, barite, phosphates and dimension stones such as granite as well as marble blocks and slabs. Small quantities of gold are produced.
Malaysia holds proven oil reserves of 4 billion barrels as of January 2014, the fourth-highest reserves in Asia-Pacific after China, India, and Vietnam. Nearly all of Malaysia's oil comes from offshore fields. The continental shelf is divided into three producing basins: the basin offshore Eastern Peninsular Malaysia in the west and the Sarawak and Sabah basins in the east. Most of the country's oil reserves are located in the Peninsular basin and tend to be light and sweet crude. Malaysia's benchmark crude oil, Tapis Blend, is a light and sweet crude oil, with an API gravity of 42.7° and a sulphur content of 0.04% by weight.
Malaysia also holds 83 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of proven natural gas reserves as of January 2014, and was the third-largest natural gas reserve holder in the Asia-Pacific region after China and Indonesia. More than half of the country's natural gas reserves are located in its eastern areas, predominantly offshore Sarawak. Most of Malaysia's gas reserves are associated with oil basins, although Sarawak and Sabah have an increasing amount of non-associated gas reserves that have offset some of the declines from mature oil and gas basins offshore Peninsular Malaysia.
In 2015, Malaysia's economy was one of the most competitive in the world, ranking 14th in the world and 5th for countries with a population of over 20 million, higher than countries like Australia, United Kingdom, South Korea and Japan.
According to a June 2013 report by the World Bank, Malaysia ranks 6th in the world in the Ease of doing business index, Malaysia's strengths in the ranking includes getting credit (ranked 1st), protecting investors (ranked 4th) and doing trade across borders (ranked 5th). Weaknesses include dealing with construction permits (ranked 43rd). The study ranks 189 countries in all aspect of doing business. In the investor protection category of the survey, Malaysia had scored a perfect 10 for the extent of disclosure, nine for director liability and seven for shareholder suits. Malaysia is behind Singapore, Hong Kong and New Zealand in investor protection category of the survey.
The 2016 edition of the World Bank's 'Ease of doing business' report ranks Malaysia at 18 in the world, and the second in SE Asia - behind Singapore, but ahead of other regional powerhouses such as Thailand (49th in the world) and Indonesia (109th in the world). Malaysia also provides tax incentives to technology-based businesses through the MSC (Multimedia Super Corridor) body.
In 2015, Malaysia was the 6th most attractive country for foreign investors, ranked in the Baseline Profitability Index (BPI) published by Foreign Policy Magazine.
The government is moving towards a more business friendly environment by setting up a special task force to facilitate business called PEMUDAH, which means "simplifier" in Malay. Highlights includes easing restrictions and requirement to hire expatriates, shorten time to do land transfers and increasing the limit of sugar storage (a controlled item in Malaysia) for companies.
PEMUDAH has been largely successful at facilitating a more business friendly environment, as reflected by the 2013 rank of Malaysia in the Ease of doing business index.
In 2016, the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia lowered the effective tax rate to 24% for businesses with capital exceeding 2.5 million ringgit. For the smaller companies, the rate is 19%.
The Malaysian government also imposes government taxes such as the Sales and Services tax and real estate taxes. The current rate of SST is at 6% while disposal of property is subject to a schedule of period holding the property.
In 2013, Malaysia's total external trade totalled US$424 billion, made up of US$230.7 billion of exports and US$192.9 billion of imports, making Malaysia the world's 21st largest exporter and the world's 25th largest importer.
Malaysia's largest trading partner is China. Malaysia has been China's top trading partner within ASEAN for five years in a row since 2008. The two-way trade volume between China and Malaysia in 2013 reached $106 billion, making Malaysia China's third-largest trade partner in Asia, just behind Japan and South Korea and eighth largest overall. On 31 May 2014, during Najib Razak's visit to China where he was welcomed by China's Premier Li Keqiang, China and Malaysia pledged to increase bilateral trade to US$160 billion by 2017. They also agreed to upgrade economic and financial co-operation, especially in the production of halal food, water processing and railway construction.
Malaysia's second largest trading partner is Singapore and Malaysia is Singapore's biggest trading partner, with bilateral trade totalling roughly $91 billion US dollars in 2012, accounting for over a fifth of total trade within ASEAN.
Malaysia's third largest trading partner is Japan, amounting RM137.45 billion (US$42 billion) of trade in 2014, an increase of 1.4% compared with to 2013. Out of this, exports totalled RM82.71 billion (US$25.6 billion), a growth of 4.4% cent while imports contracted 2.9% to RM54.75 billion (US$16.74 billion). Malaysian Ambassador to Japan Datuk Ahmad Izlan Idris said the main exports from Malaysia to Japan were liquefied natural gas (LNG), electrical and electronics as well as chemical-based products. He said Malaysia's main imports from Japan were electrical and electronics, machines and equipment as well as spare parts and accessories for vehicles and cars.
Malaysia is an important trading partner for the United States. In 1999, two-way bilateral trade between the US and Malaysia totalled US$30.5 billion, with US exports to Malaysia totalling US$9.1 billion and US imports from Malaysia increasing to US$21.4 billion. Malaysia was the United States' 10th-largest trading partner and its 12th-largest export market. During the first half of 2000, US exports totalled US$5 billion, while US imports from Malaysia reached US$11.6 billion.
Agriculture is now a minor sector of the Malaysian economy, accounting for 7.1% of Malaysia's GDP in 2014 and employing 11.1% of Malaysia's labour force, contrasting with the 1960s when agriculture accounted for 37% of Malaysia's GDP and employed 66.2% of the labour force. The crops grown by the agricultural sector has also significantly shifted from food crops like paddy and coconut to industrial crops like palm oil and rubber, which in 2005 contributed to 83.7% of total agricultural land use, compared to 68.5% in 1960.
Despite its minor contribution to Malaysia's GDP, Malaysia has a significant foothold in the world's agricultural sector, being the world's second largest producer of palm oil in 2012 producing 18.79 million tonnes of crude palm oil on roughly of land. Though Indonesia produces more palm oil, Malaysia is the world's largest exporter of palm oil having exported 18 million tonnes of palm oil products in 2011.
In March 2019, the European Commission concluded that palm oil cultivation results in excessive deforestation and its use in transport fuel should be phased out by 2030. In response, Mahathir alleged that the European Union is at risk of starting a trade war with Malaysia regarding its "grossly unfair" policies geared towards decreasing the use of palm oil, which Mahathir stated was "unfair" and an example of "rich people…[trying] to impoverish poor people".
Malaysia's industrial sector accounts for 36.8%, over a third of the country's GDP in 2014, and employs 36% of the labour force in 2012. The industrial sector mostly contributed by the electronics industry, automotive industry and construction industry.
The electrical & electronics (E&E) industry is the leading sector in Malaysia's manufacturing sector, contributing significantly to the country's exports (32.8 per cent) and employment (27.2 per cent) in 2013. Malaysia benefits from the global demand in the usage of mobile devices (smartphones, tablets), storage devices (cloud computing, data centres), optoelectronics (photonics, fibre optics, LEDs) and embedded technology (integrated circuits, PCBs, LEDs).
Products/activities which fall under this sub-sector include semiconductor devices, passive components, printed circuits and other components such as media, substrates and connectors.
Within the electronic components sub-sector, the semiconductor devices is the leading contributor of exports for the E&E industry. Exports of semiconductor devices were RM111.19 billion or 47% of the total E&E products exported in 2013.
Malaysia is a major hub for electrical component manufacturing, with factories of international companies like Intel, AMD, Freescale Semiconductor, ASE, Infineon, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments, Fairchild Semiconductor, Renesas, X-Fab and major Malaysian-owned companies such as Green Packet, Silterra, Globetronics, Unisem and Inari which have contributed to the steady growth of the semiconductor industry in Malaysia. To date, there are more than 50 companies, largely MNCs producing semiconductors devices in Malaysia.
Malaysia is a major hub for solar equipment manufacturing, with factories of companies like First Solar, Panasonic, TS Solartech, Jinko Solar, JA Solar, SunPower, Hanwha Q Cells, and SunEdison in locations like Kulim, Penang, Malacca, Cyberjaya and Ipoh.
In 2013, Malaysia's total production capacity for solar wafers, solar cells and solar panels totalled 4,042 MW. By 2014, Malaysia was the world's third largest manufacturer of photovoltaics equipment, behind China and the European Union.
Many international companies have the majority of production capacity located in Malaysia, such as the American company First Solar which has over 2,000 MW of production capacity located in Kulim and only 280 MW located in Ohio, and formerly German-based Hanwha Q Cells which produces 1,100 MW worth of solar cells in Cyberjaya while producing only 200 MW worth of solar cells in Germany. SunPower's largest manufacturing facility with a capacity of 1,400 MW is also located in Malacca.
The automotive industry in Malaysia consists of 27 vehicle producers and over 640 component manufacturers. The Malaysian automotive industry is the third largest in Southeast Asia, and the 23rd largest in the world, with an annual production output of over 500,000 vehicles. The automotive industry contributes 4% or RM 40 billion to Malaysia's GDP, and employs a workforce of over 700,000 throughout a nationwide ecosystem.
The Malaysian automotive industry is Southeast Asia's sole pioneer of indigenous car companies, namely Proton and Perodua. In 2002, Proton helped Malaysia become the 11th country in the world with the capability to fully design, engineer and manufacture cars from the ground up. The Malaysian automotive industry also hosts several domestic-foreign joint venture companies, which assemble a large variety of vehicles from imported complete knock down (CKD) kits.
Malaysia has a large construction industry of over RM102.2 billion (US$32 billion). The highest percentage share was contributed by construction of non-residential buildings which recorded 34.6 per cent. This was followed by civil engineering sub-sector (30.6%), residential buildings (29.7%), and special trades (5.1%).
Selangor recorded the highest value of construction work done at 24.5% among the states, followed by Johor at 16.5%, Kuala Lumpur at 15.8%, Sarawak at 8.6% and Penang at 6.4%. The contribution of these five states accounted for 71.8% of the total value of construction work in Malaysia.
The expansion of the construction industry has been catalysed by major capital expenditure projects, and a key factor has been the government's Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) and public-private partnership (PPP) mega-projects like Tun Razak Exchange, KVMRT and Iskandar Malaysia.
Malaysia has a relatively new defence industry that was created after the government created the Malaysia Defence Industry Council to encourage local companies to participate in the country's defence sector in 1999.
The land sector of the defence industry is dominated by DefTech, a subsidiary of Malaysia's largest automotive manufacturer, DRB-HICOM. The company focuses on manufacturing armoured vehicles and specialised logistics vehicles. The company has supplied ACV-15 infantry fighting vehicles to the Malaysian Army in the past and is currently supplying the DefTech AV8 amphibious multirole armoured vehicle to the Malaysian Army.
The sea sector of the defence industry is dominated by Boustead Heavy Industries, who builds warships for the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) through transfer of technology with foreign companies. The company has built 4 Kedah-class offshore patrol vessels for the RMN in the past and is currently undertaking a project to build 6 more Second Generation Patrol Vessels for the RMN.
In Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur is the major Fashion & Production City. KL city most stylish areas are Bukit Bintang, KLCC , Pavilion Mall and Starhill Gallery. As Malaysia comes with a multiracial background, The fashion scene varies from vibrant colours to minimal looks. Malaysia's most notable Designers & Labels includes, Jimmy Choo, Lewre , Melinda Looi ,Farah Khan Bernard Chandran , JOVIAN by Jovian Mandagie ,Nurita Harith ,Bon Zainal , Joe Chia, , CSHEON by Carmen Sheon ,Alia Bastamam . Malaysia's top fashion week are KL Fashion Week and Malaysia Fashion Week
Malaysian Label Fashion Brands also includes Bonia (fashion) ,Double Woot,Twenty3, Amora Scarlett , Stoned and Co , Mizzue , Padini , Nose Kaca-Kaca, Whoosh, These are more contemporary brands.
Kuala Lumpur has a large financial sector, and is ranked the 22nd in the world in the Global Financial Centres Index.
There are currently 27 commercial banks (8 domestic and 19 foreign), 16 Islamic banks (10 domestic and 6 foreign), 15 investment banks (all domestic) and 2 other financial institutions (both domestic) operating in Malaysia.
Commercial banks are the largest and most significant providers of funds in the banking system. The biggest banks in Malaysia's finance sector are Maybank, CIMB, Public Bank Berhad, RHB Bank and AmBank.
Malaysia is currently also the world's largest centre of Islamic Finance. Malaysia has 16 fully-fledged Islamic banks including five foreign ones, with total Islamic bank assets of US$168.4 billion, which accounts for 25% of the Malaysia's total banking assets. This in turn accounts for over 10% of the world's total Islamic banking assets. In comparison, Malaysia's main rival UAE, has US$95 billion of assets.
Malaysia is the global leader in terms of the sukuk (Islamic bond) market, issuing RM62 billion (US$17.74 billion) worth of sukuk in 2014 - over 66.7% of the global total of US$26.6 billion Malaysia also accounts for around two-thirds of the global outstanding sukuk market, controlling $178 billion of $290 billion, the global total.
The Malaysian government is planning to transform the country's capital Kuala Lumpur into a major financial centre in a bid to raise its profile and spark greater international trade and investment through the construction of the Tun Razak Exchange (TRX). The government believes the project will allow Malaysia to compete with regional financial superpowers such as Singapore and Hong Kong, by leveraging on the country's established strength in the rapidly growing Islamic financial marketplace.
Tourism is a huge sector of the Malaysian economy, with over 57.1 million domestic tourists generating RM37.4 billion (US$11 billion) in tourist receipts in 2014, and attracting 27,437,315 international tourist arrivals, a growth of 6.7% compared to 2013. Total international tourist receipts increased by 3.9% to RM60.6 billion (US$19 billion) in 2014.
United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) listed Malaysia as the 10th most visited country in 2012.
Malaysia is rich with diverse natural attractions which become an asset to the country's tourism industry. This was recognised by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), who declared Malaysia as "a destination full of unrealized potential"´with the main strength as the availability of a vast range of diverse attractions to suit alltastes relatively affordable prices and; largely unspoilt destination.
Malaysia's top tourist destinations are the Mulu Caves, Perhentian Islands, Langkawi, Petronas Towers and Mount Kinabalu.
Medical tourism is a significant sector of Malaysia's economy, with an estimated 1 million travelling to Malaysia specifically for medical treatments alone in 2014, contributing around US$200 million (about RM697 mil) in revenue to the economy.
Malaysia is reputed as one of the most preferred medical tourism destinations with modern private healthcare facilities and highly efficient medical professionals. In 2014, Malaysia was ranked the world's best destination for medical tourism by the Nomad Capitalist. Malaysia was also included in the top 10 medical tourism destinations list by CNBC.
In 2014, Prince Court Medical Centre, a Malaysian hospital, was ranked the world's best hospital for medical tourists by MTQUA.
The Malaysian government targets to hit RM 9.6 billion (US$3.2 billion) in revenue from 1.9 million foreign patients by 2020.
Malaysia has a vibrant oil and gas industry. The national oil company, Petronas is ranked the 69th biggest company in the world in the Fortune 500 list in 2014, with a revenue of over US100.7 billion and total assets of over US$169 billion. Petronas provides around 30% of the Malaysian government's revenue, although the government has been actively cutting down on its reliance of petroleum, with a target of 20%.
Petronas is also the custodian of oil and gas reserves for Malaysia. Hence, all oil and gas activities are regulated by Petronas. Malaysia encourages foreign oil company participation through production sharing contracts, in which significant amount of oil will be given away to the foreign oil company until it reaches a production milestone. Currently, many major oil companies such as ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Nippon Oil, and Murphy Oil are involved in such contracts. As a result, 40% of oil fields in Malaysia are developed.
There are over 3,500 oil and gas (O&G) businesses in Malaysia comprising international oil companies, independents, services and manufacturig companies that support the needs of the O&G value chain both domestically and regionally. Many major global machinery & equipment (M&E) manufacturers have set up bases in Malaysia to complement home-grown M&E companies, while other Malaysian oil and gas companies are focused on key strategic segments such as marine, drilling, engineering, fabrication, offshore installation and operations and maintenance (O&M).
The infrastructure of Malaysia is one of the most developed in Asia. Its telecommunications network is second only to Singapore's in Southeast Asia, with 4.7 million fixed-line subscribers and more than 30 million cellular subscribers. The country has seven international ports, the major one being the Port Klang. There are 200 industrial parks along with specialised parks such as Technology Park Malaysia and Kulim Hi-Tech Park. Fresh water is available to over 95 per cent of the population. During the colonial period, development was mainly concentrated in economically powerful cities and in areas forming security concerns. Although rural areas have been the focus of great development, they still lag behind areas such as the West Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The telecommunication network, although strong in urban areas, is less available to the rural population.
Malaysia's energy infrastructure sector is largely dominated by Tenaga Nasional, the largest electric utility company in Southeast Asia, with over RM99.03 billion of assets. Customers are connected to electricity through the National Grid, with more than 420 transmission substations in the Peninsular linked together by approximately 11,000 km of transmission lines operating at 132, 275 and 500 kilovolts.
In 2013, Malaysia's total power generation capacity was over 29,728 megawatts. Total electricity generation was 140,985.01 GWh and total electricity consumption was 116,087.51 GWh.
Energy production in Malaysia is largely based on oil and natural gas, owing to Malaysia's oil reserves and natural gas reserves, which is the fourth largest in Asia-Pacific after China, India and Vietnam.
Malaysia's road network is one of the most comprehensive in Asia and covers a total of .
The main national road network is the Malaysian Federal Roads System, which span over . Most of the federal roads in Malaysia are 2-lane roads. In town areas, federal roads may become 4-lane roads to increase traffic capacity. Nearly all federal roads are paved with tarmac except parts of the Skudai–Pontian Highway which is paved with concrete, while parts of the Federal Highway linking Klang to Kuala Lumpur, is paved with asphalt.
Malaysia has over of highways and the longest highway, the North–South Expressway, extends over on the West Coast of Peninsular Malaysia, connecting major urban centres like Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru. In 2015, the government announced a RM27 billion (US$8.23 billion) Pan-Borneo Highway project to upgrade all trunk roads to dual carriage expressways, bringing the standard of East Malaysian highways to the same level of quality of Peninsular highways.
There are currently of railways in Malaysia, are double tracked and electrified.
Rail transport in Malaysia comprises heavy rail (KTM), light rapid transit and monorail (Rapid Rail), and a funicular railway line (Penang Hill Railway). Heavy rail is mostly used for intercity passenger and freight transport as well as some urban public transport, while LRTs are used for intra-city urban public transport. There two commuter rail services linking Kuala Lumpur with the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. The sole monorail line in the country is also used for public transport in Kuala Lumpur, while the only funicular railway line is in Penang. A rapid transit project, the KVMRT, is currently under construction to improve Kuala Lumpur's public transport system.
The railway network covers most of the 11 states in Peninsular Malaysia. In East Malaysia, only the state of Sabah has railways. The network is also connected to the Thai railway network in the north. If the Burma Railway is rebuilt, services to Myanmar, India, and China could be initiated.
Malaysia has 118 airports, of which 38 are paved. The national airline is Malaysia Airlines, providing international and domestic air services. Major international routes and domestic routes crossing between West Malaysia and East Malaysia are served by Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia and Malindo Air while smaller domestic routes are supplemented by smaller airlines like MASwings, Firefly and Berjaya Air. Major cargo airlines include MASkargo and Transmile Air Services.
Kuala Lumpur International Airport is the main and busiest airport of Malaysia. In 2014, it was the world's 13th busiest airport by international passenger traffic, recording over 25.4 million international passenger traffic. It was also the world's 20th busiest airport by passenger traffic, recording over 48.9 million passengers.
Other major airports include Kota Kinabalu International Airport, which is also Malaysia's second busiest airport and busiest airport in East Malaysia with over 6.9 million passengers in 2013, and Penang International Airport, with over 5.4 million passengers in 2013.
Malaysia is strategically located on the Strait of Malacca, one of the most important shipping lanes in the world.
Malaysia has two ports that are listed in the top 20 busiest ports in the world, Port Klang and Port of Tanjung Pelepas, which are respectively the 2nd and 3rd busiest ports in Southeast Asia after the Port of Singapore.
Port Klang is Malaysia's busiest port, and the 13th busiest port in the world in 2013, handling over 10.3 million TEUs. Port of Tanjung Pelepas is Malaysia's second busiest port, and the 19th busiest port in the world in 2013, handling over 7.6 million TEUs.
Malaysia's total accumulated investments in 2014 was RM235.9 billion, with 72.6 per cent (RM171.3 billion) being contributed by domestic sources and 27.4 per cent (RM64.6 billion) coming from foreign sources.
According to A.T. Kearney, a global management consulting firm, Malaysia was ranked 15th in the 2014 Foreign Direct Investment Confidence Index, 9th in 2012, 16th in 2007 and 21st in 2010. The index assesses the impact of political, economic and regulatory changes on the FDI intentions and preferences of the leaders of top companies around the world.
Malaysia has 17 companies that rank in the Forbes Global 2000 ranking for 2014.
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Telecommunications in Malaysia
The primary regulator of telecommunications in Malaysia is the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). It issues licenses under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, the Postal Services Act 2012 and the Digital Signature Act 1997.
Number of fixed-telephone subscriptions: 6.474 million as at 4Q 2019
Number of Direct Exchange Line (DEL) subscriptions: 2.199 million as at 4Q 2019
Domestic:
International:
Total broadband subscriptions are at 43.378 million as at 4Q 2019, with broadband penetration rate per 100 inhabitants standing at 131.7%.
In 2019, fixed broadband contributed 6.79% of total broadband market share or 2.947 million subscriptions (2018: 2.7 million).
Fixed broadband is being provided via Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line (SDSL), Very-high bit-rate Digital Subscriber Line (VDSL), Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH), Satellite, Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) and Evolution-Data Optimized (EVDO).
The High Speed Broadband project known as HSBB was introduced since 2008 to improve the quality of broadband access and enable the users in major cities and high-impact economies areas to enjoy broadband speeds up to 100Mbps; The Suburban Broadband (SUBB) and Rural Broadband (RBB) provide broadband speeds up to 20Mbps for users in suburban and rural areas.
On 28 August 2019, the Government approved the implementation of the National Fiberisation and Connectivity Plan (NFCP) over a five-year period from 2019 to 2023.
NFCP is a plan that aims to put in place a robust, pervasive, high quality and affordable digital connectivity for the well-being of the people and progress of the country with the following targets:
Further information on NFCP can be obtained from NFCP Home Page.
In 2019, mobile broadband contributed 93.21% of total broadband market share or 40.431 million of subscriptions as at 4Q 2019 (2018: 36.8 million).
The major service providers for mobile cellular services in Malaysia are Celcom Axiata Berhad, Digi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd, Maxis Berhad and U Mobile Sdn Bhd. The number of mobile cellular subscriptions stood at 44.601 million as at 4Q 2019 with penetration rate per 100 inhabitants is 135.4%.
Mobile cellular service is also provided by Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO). As at 4Q 2019, there are 10 MVNOs operating in Malaysia which include Merchantrade Asia Sdn Bhd, redONE Network Sdn Bhd, Tune Talk Sdn Bhd, XOX Com Berhad, Altel Communication Sdn Bhd, Telekomunikasi Indonesia International (M) Sdn Bhd, Cubic Telecom, Pavo Communications Sdn Bhd, MY Evolution Sdn Bhd and Redtone Engineering & Network Services Sdn Bhd.
Amateur Radio Stations: 13,682 assignments
Radio listenership: 19.8 million (2018)
The following channels are free-to-air:
Television viewership: 28 million (2017)
Internet Users: 28.304 million (2018)2
Country code (Top level domain): MY
1 Network that can reach every other network on the Internet without purchasing IP transit or paying for peering
2 Internet user population is calculated from Internet Users Survey 2018 (IUS 2018) based on 87.4% of total population of Malaysia in 2018 (32.385 mil). Population data from Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM).
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Transport in Malaysia
Transportation in Malaysia started to develop during British colonial rule, and the country's transport network is now diverse and developed. Malaysia's road network is extensive, covering 250,023 kilometres, including 1,956 km of expressways (in 2019). The main highway of the country extends over 800 km, reaching the Thai border from Singapore. Peninsular Malaysia has an extensive road network, whilst the road system in East Malaysia is not as well-developed. The main modes of transport in Peninsular Malaysia include buses, trains, cars and to an extent, commercial travel on airplanes.
Malaysia has six international airports. The official airline of Malaysia is Malaysia Airlines, providing international and domestic air service alongside two other carriers. Most of the major cities are connected by air routes. The railway system is state-run, and covers a total of 1,849 km. Popular within the cities are commuter rail and rapid transit, which reduces the traffic load on other systems, and is considered safe, comfortable and reliable.
Malaysia's road network covers , of which is paved/unpaved roads, and is expressways. The longest highway of the country, the North–South Expressway, extends over between the Thai border and Singapore. The Second longest highway is East-Coast Highway (LPT-E8) Spanning almost 500 km from Kuala Lumpur to state capital of Terengganu, Kuala Terengganu. The road systems in Sabah and Sarawak are less developed and of lower quality in comparison to that of Peninsular Malaysia. Recently, the construction of Pan-Borneo Highway is approved under 2015 Malaysian Budget. The highway project spans 1,663 km (936 km in Sarawak, 727 km in Sabah) mostly mirror the existing trunk road, and it involves the widening of the present three-metre-wide single-carriageway into a dual-carriageway. Driving on the left has been compulsory since the introduction of motor vehicles in Federated Malay States in 1903 during British colonial era. It is estimated that 9,432,023 passenger cars is actively using this road network in 2018.
The railway system is state-run, and covers a total of . Most of the railway lines are consisted of ballasted setup, along with concrete sleepers, which serves better in wet and humid tropical condition, compared to wooden sleepers which can rot over time. As early as 1980s, due to the need for local suppliers of such products, a few local Malaysian rail manufacturing companies had been formed by collaboration with foreign technology partners.
Malaysia has 62 airports, of which 38 are paved. The national airline is Malaysia Airlines, providing international and domestic air services. Major international routes and domestic routes crossing between West Malaysia and East Malaysia are served by Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia and Malindo Air while smaller domestic routes are supplemented by smaller airlines like MASwings, Firefly and Berjaya Air. Major cargo airlines include MASkargo and Transmile Air Services.
Kuala Lumpur International Airport is the main and busiest airport in Malaysia. In 2018, it was the world's 12th-busiest airport by international passenger traffic, recording over 43.5 million international passenger traffic. Other major airports include Kota Kinabalu International Airport, which is also Malaysia's second-busiest airport and busiest airport in East Malaysia with over 8.6 million passengers in 2018, and Penang International Airport, which serves Malaysia's second-largest urban area, with over 7.99 million passengers in 2018.
total: 38
over 3,047 m: 5
2,438 to 3,047 m: 7
1,524 to 2,437 m: 10
914 to 1,523 m: 9
under 914 m: 7 (2004 est.)
2 (2006 est.)
National airline:
Other airline:
Malaysia has of waterways, most of them rivers. Of this, are in Peninsular Malaysia, are in Sabah, and are in Sarawak.
Malaysia is strategically located on the Strait of Malacca, one of the most important shipping lanes in the world. Malaysia has two ports that are listed in the top 20 busiest ports in the world, Port Klang and Port of Tanjung Pelepas, which are, respectively, the second- and third-busiest ports in Southeast Asia after the Port of Singapore. Port Klang is Malaysia's busiest port, and the thirteenth-busiest port in the world in 2013, handling over 10.3 million TEUs. Port of Tanjung Pelepas is Malaysia's second-busiest port, and the nineteenth-busiest port in the world in 2013, handling over 7.6 million TEUs.
This is a list of Malaysian ports and harbours:
Total: 360 ships (1,000 GT or over) 5,389,397 GT/
by type: bulk 59, cargo 100, chemical tanker 38, container 66, liquefied gas 25, livestock carrier 1, passenger 2, petroleum tanker 56, roll on/roll off 5, vehicle carrier 8
Foreign-owned: China 1, Germany 2, Hong Kong 8, Indonesia 2, Japan 2, South Korea 1, Liberia 1, Monaco 1, Norway 1, Philippines 2, Singapore 81, Vietnam 1
registered in other countries: 75 (2009 est.)
Malaysia has of condensate pipeline, of gas pipeline, of oil pipeline, and of refined products pipelines.
Regulation:
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Malaysian Armed Forces
The Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF, ; Jawi:اڠكتن تنترا مليسيا), are the military of Malaysia, consists of three branches, namely the Malaysian Army, Royal Malaysian Navy and the Royal Malaysian Air Force. Since June 20. 2018, General Tan Sri Affendi Buang RMAF is the Chief of Malaysian Armed Forces.
Malaysia's armed forces were created from the unification of military forces which arose during the first half of the 20th century when Malaya and Singapore were the subjects of British colonial rule before Malaya achieved independence in 1957. The primary objective of the armed forces in Malaysia is to defend the country's sovereignty and protect it from any and all types of threats.
It is responsible for assisting civilian authorities to overcome all international threats, preserve public order, assist in natural disasters and participate in national development programs. It is also sustaining and upgrading its capabilities in the international sphere to uphold the national foreign policy of being involved under the guidance of the United Nations (UN).
The main theaters of operations were within Malaysian borders, primarily to fight an insurgency led by the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) in what was known as the Emergency. The only foreign incursion of Malaysian territory in modern times were in World War II by Japan (Malaya was then not a unified political entity and consisted of the British Crown Colony of the Straits Settlements, and the British protected Federated Malay States and Unfederated Malay States) and during the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation by Indonesia under the leadership of President Sukarno. Operations on foreign soil have mainly been peacekeeping operations under the auspices of the United Nations.
Other limited participation under UNPKO are United Nations International Police Force (UNIPTF) since December 1995; United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) since June 1999; United Nations Observer Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) since October 1999; United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) since September 1999 and United Nations Organisation Mission in Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) since February 2000. 18 Malaysian Armed Forces personnel have been killed during UN peacekeeping operations.
Malaysian defence requirements are assigned to the Malaysian Armed Forces (Angkatan Tentera Malaysia – ATM). The armed forces has three branches,the Malaysian Army (Tentera Darat Malaysia – TDM), Royal Malaysian Navy (Tentera Laut Diraja Malaysia – TLDM) and the Royal Malaysian Air Force (Tentera Udara Diraja Malaysia – TUDM). Malaysia does not have conscription, and the required minimum age for voluntary military service is 18.
In the early 1990s, Malaysia undertook a major program to expand and modernise its armed forces. However, budgetary constraints imposed by the 1997 Asian financial crisis held many of the procurement. The recent economic recovery may lead to relaxation of budgetary constraints on the resumption of major weapons purchases. In October 2000, the Defence Minister also announced a review of national defence and security policy to bring it up to date. The review addressed new security threats that have emerged in the form of low intensity conflicts, such as the kidnapping of Malaysians and foreigners from resort islands located off the east coast of the state of Sabah and risk rising territory dispute with several neighbour countries. Currently, 1.4% of Malaysia's GDP is spent on the military, which employs 1.23% of Malaysia's manpower. Dr Kogila Balakrishnan is the head of the Defence Industry.
Since the recovery from the 1997 economic crisis, the army's modernisation programme has gained momentum. The acquisition of Main Battle Tank (MBT), Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC), Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV) and modern artillery make the army as one of the potent power in the region.
Following the completion of the New Generation Patrol Vessel (NGPV) program, Malaysia now moved to the next program called Second Generation Patrol Vessel (SGPV). Malaysia is also looking to purchase more submarine as well as a batch of Multi-Role Support Ship (MRSS). In addition, an upgrade programme and Service Life Extension Programme (SLEP) for the old navy's ship will keep the fleet modern with the latest technology needed.
RMAF has traditionally looked to the West for its purchases, primarily to the United States and Europe. However, limitation imposed by the United States on "new technology" to the region made RMAF consider purchases from Russia and other non-traditional sources. Currently, RMAF operates a unique mix of American, European and Russian-made aircraft.
In early 2004, the Ministry of Defence also initiated a compulsory National Service program for 18 years old Malaysians. Participants of the Malaysian National Service are chosen randomly. Currently, only 20% of those eligible are inducted but plans call for this program to eventually cover all 18-year-old adults.
Although under the purview of the Ministry of Defence, the National Service is not a military programme. Draftees are taught basic hand-to-hand combat and handling of certain weapons, including Colt M16s by military instructors, but are not expected to be conscripted or called into military draft. It is described as a nation and community building programme and incorporate other training modules including character learning and civics.
As of 2018, the Malaysian government has abolished the national service due to the lack of fund and the previous mismanagement of programme leading to myriad of complaints. Currently, individual over 18 are still able to participate in the program, but need to register for themselves and are not forcibly selected like before.
In light of the increasing crude oil price worldwide, the military had volunteered in a pioneering program to use biodiesel. By next year (2007), all diesel-type vehicle in the Malaysian Armed Forces will be using biodiesel consisting of 95% diesel and 5% palm oil diesel.
Although MoD announced a redraw from funding the Eagle ARV research program. Composite Technology and Research Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. (CTRM) joined venture with Kramatic Systems Sdn. Bhd. (IKRAMATIC) and System Consultancy Services Sdn. Bhd.(SCS) had come close with another development, the ALUDRA MK I/MK II. It was reported during the LIMA 07, Malaysian army and Joint Forces Command had showed strong interest toward the indigenous tactical UAV.
There is also a new development unveiled during the celebration of the Malaysia's 50th independence. It is a laser guide projectile code name Taming Sari XK98, but no further details were enclosed. It was first spotted by the public when it participated the celebration parade.
Defence Minister Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said in a statement on 10 October 2013, Malaysia is planning on establishing a marines corps for amphibious operation. The marine will be drawn from all three services and the bulk of it is from one of the three parachute battalions of the 10 Paratrooper Brigade which will be re-designated as a marine battalion. The 9th Royal Malay Regiment (para) and 8th Royal Ranger Regiment (para) have both conducted amphibious warfare training as a secondary mission and most recently in June 2013 during the CARAT exercise with the US Marine Corps (USMC) and subsequently in an amphibious landing exercise with French troops and the landing platform dock FNS Tonnerre. Malaysian government has yet to decide whether the marines will fall under Malaysian Army or Royal Malaysian Navy.
The Five Power Defence Arrangement between Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, is a regional security initiative which has been in place for almost 40 years. It involves joint military exercises held between the 5 countries.
Joint exercises and war games also been held with Brunei, China, Indonesia and the United States. Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam have agreed to host joint security force exercises to secure their maritime border and tackle issues such as illegal immigration, piracy and smuggling.
Previously there are fears that extremist militants activities in the Muslim areas of the southern Philippines and southern Thailand could spill over into Malaysia. Due to this, Malaysia began to increase its border security.
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Foreign relations of Malaysia
Malaysia is an active member of various international organisations, including the Commonwealth of Nations, the United Nations, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and the Non-Aligned Movement. It has also in recent times been an active proponent of regional co-operation.
Malaysia has been a member of the Commonwealth since independence in 1957, when it entered into the Anglo-Malayan Defence Agreement (AMDA) with the United Kingdom whereby Britain guaranteed the defence of Malaya (and later Malaysia). The presence of British and other Commonwealth troops were crucial to Malaysia's security during the Malayan Emergency (1948–1960) and the Indonesian Confrontation (1962–1966), which was sparked by Malaya's merger with the British colonies of Singapore, Sarawak and North Borneo to form Malaysia in 1963.
The British defence guarantee ended following Britain's decision in 1967 to withdraw its forces east of Suez, and was replaced in 1971 with the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) by which Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Singapore agreed to co-operate in the area of defence, and to "consult" in the event of external aggression or the threat of attack on Malaysia or Singapore. The FPDA continues to operate, and the Five Powers have a permanent Integrated Area Defence System based at RMAF Butterworth, and organise annual naval and air exercises.
Under the leadership of Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman (up to 1970), Malaysia pursued a strongly pro-Commonwealth anti-communist foreign policy. Nonetheless, Malaysia was active in the opposition to apartheid that saw South Africa quit the Commonwealth in 1961, and was a founding member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1967 and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in 1969, with the Tunku as its first Secretary-General in 1971.
Under Prime Ministers Tun Abdul Razak and Tun Hussein Onn, Malaysia shifted its policy towards non-alignment and neutrality. Malaysia's foreign policy is officially based on the principle of neutrality and maintaining peaceful relations with all countries, regardless of their ideology or political system, and to further develop relations with other countries in the region. In 1971, ASEAN issued its neutralist and anti-nuclear "Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality" (ZOPFAN) Declaration. In the same year, Malaysia joined the Non-Aligned Movement. Consistent with this policy Malaysia established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China in 1974.
This policy shift was continued and strengthened by Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad, who pursued a regionalist and pro-South policy with at times strident anti-Western rhetoric. He long sought to establish an East Asian Economic Group as an alternative to APEC, excluding Australia, New Zealand and the Americas, and during his premiership Malaysia signed up to an ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) and ASEAN+3, a regional forum with China, Japan and South Korea. He was involved with a spat with Australian prime minister Paul Keating, who called him a "recalcitrant" after he refused to attend the APEC summit in Seattle.
A strong tenet of Malaysia's policy is national sovereignty and the right of a country to control its domestic affairs.
Malaysia views regional co-operation as the cornerstone of its foreign policy. It attaches a high priority to the security and stability of Southeast Asia, and has tried to strengthen relations with other Islamic states. Malaysia was a leading advocate of expanding ASEAN's membership to include Laos, Vietnam, and Burma, arguing that "constructive engagement" with these countries, especially Burma, will help bring political and economic changes. Malaysia is also a member of G-15 and G-77 economic groupings.
Despite Mahathir's frequently anti-Western rhetoric he worked closely with Western countries, and led a crackdown against Islamic fundamentalists after the 11 September attacks. Under his successor, Abdullah Badawi, relations with Western countries, particularly Australia, have improved. The current Minister of Foreign Affairs is Dato' Seri Hishamuddin Hussein, who assumed office on 10 March 2020. with Kamaruddin Jaafar was deputy minister.
Malaysia has never recognised Israel and has no diplomatic ties with it, with the country ever condemning the Israelis action during their raid over a Gaza humanitarian mission and request the International Criminal Court to take any action against them. Malaysia has stated it will only establish an official relations with Israel once a peace agreement with the State of Palestine been reached and called for both parties to find a quick resolution. Malaysian peacekeeping forces have contributed to many UN peacekeeping missions, such as in Namibia, Cambodia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Somalia, East Timor and Lebanon.
Malaysia is a founding member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (now the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation). It is also a member of the Non-Aligned Movement. Kuala Lumpur was the site of the first East Asia Summit in 2005, and Malaysia has chaired ASEAN, the OIC, and the NAM in the past. A former British colony, it is also a member of the Commonwealth.
Malaysia is affiliated with the United Nations and many of its specialised agencies, including UNESCO, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, International Atomic Energy Agency; General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. It is also a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Developing 8 Countries. Asian Development Bank, Five-Power Defense Arrangement, G-77, and South Centre. On 31 October 2011 Malaysia became a party to the Antarctic Treaty.
The policy towards territorial disputes by the Malaysian government is one of pragmatism, solving disputes in a number of ways, including some resolved in the International Court of Justice.
Malaysia has asserted sovereignty over the Spratly Islands together with China, the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Brunei. Tensions have eased since the 2002 "Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea". However, it is not the legally binding code of conduct sought by some parties. Malaysia was not party to a March 2005 joint accord among the national oil companies of China, the Philippines and Vietnam on conducting marine seismic activities in the Spratly Islands. Malaysia long maintained a low-key approach to the dispute, maintaining positive relations with China due to strong economic ties, a large ethnic Chinese population, and a desire for a balance of power in the region. However, as Chinese fishing vessels and coast guard ships have become increasingly assertive, Malaysia has increased its diplomatic and military responses.
The ICJ awarded Ligitan and Sipadan islands to Malaysia over Indonesia but left the maritime boundary in the hydrocarbon-rich Celebes Sea in dispute, culminating in hostile confrontations in March 2005 over concessions to the Ambalat oil block.
Singapore was a part of Malaysia for two years (1963–65), but it ultimately was asked by Tunku to secede after increased racial tensions due to the election campaigns in 1964. Today, disputes continue among other things, over the pricing of deliveries of raw untreated water to Singapore, Singapore's land reclamation causing a negative environmental impact in Malaysian waters, a new bridge to replace the Johor-Singapore Causeway which Singapore does not want to pay for, maritime boundaries, the redevelopment of Malayan Railway lands in Singapore and Pedra Branca. Both parties however, agreed to ICJ arbitration on the island dispute. On 24 May 2008, the International Court of Justice ruled that Pedra Branca belonged to Singapore with the nearby Middle Rocks going to Malaysia. Regarding railway land in Singapore, see also Malaysia-Singapore Points of Agreement of 1990. On introducing budget flights between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, the stumbling block appears to be Malaysia's sympathy towards flag carrier Malaysia Airlines, and preference for the existing near duopoly with Singapore Airlines.
The Philippines has a dormant claim to eastern Sabah.
Malaysia's land boundary with Brunei around Limbang is no longer in dispute. On 16 March 2009, Brunei announced its decision to drop a long-standing claim to Sarawak's Limbang district. This was the result of the two countries resolving their various land and sea territorial disputes. This issue was resolved along with several other disputes with the sealing and signing of letters of exchange by Abdullah and the Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei at Istana Nurul Iman. As of 2010, the two countries are working towards resolving disputes over their maritime boundaries.
According to a source, the areas around Ko Kra and Ko Losin in present-day Thailand are once disputed with Malaysia.
The Federation of Malaya became an independent native elective monarchy within the Commonwealth on 31 August 1957 with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong as head of state.
Malaya united with North Borneo (now Sabah), Sarawak, and Singapore to form Malaysia on 16 September 1963.
Singapore was expelled from Malaysia on 9 August 1965, and became an independent Commonwealth republic.
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Maldives
The Maldives (, ; "Dhivehi Raajje"), officially the Republic of Maldives, is a small island nation in South Asia, located in the Arabian Sea of the Indian Ocean. It lies southwest of Sri Lanka and India, about from the Asian continent. The chain of 26 atolls stretches from Ihavandhippolhu Atoll in the north to Addu Atoll in the south to the equator. Comprising a territory spanning roughly , the Maldives is one of the world's most geographically dispersed sovereign states as well as the smallest Asian country by land area and population, with around inhabitants. Malé is the capital and the most populated city, traditionally called the "King's Island" where the ancient royal dynasties ruled for its central location.
The Maldives archipelago is located on the Chagos-Laccadive Ridge, a vast submarine mountain range in the Indian Ocean; this also forms a terrestrial ecoregion, together with the Chagos Archipelago and Lakshadweep. With an average ground-level elevation of above sea level, it is the world's lowest-lying country, with even its highest natural point being one of the lowest in the world, at .
In the 12th century Islam reached the Maldivian archipelago, which was consolidated as a sultanate, developing strong commercial and cultural ties with Asia and Africa. From the mid-16th-century the region came under the increasing influence of European colonial powers, with the Maldives becoming a British protectorate in 1887. Independence from the United Kingdom came in 1965, and a presidential republic was established in 1968 with an elected People's Majlis. The ensuing decades have seen political instability, efforts at democratic reform, and environmental challenges posed by climate change.
The Maldives became a founding member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). It is also a member of the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and the Non-Aligned Movement. The World Bank classifies the Maldives as having an upper-middle income economy. Fishing has historically been the dominant economic activity, and remains the largest sector by far, followed by the rapidly growing tourism industry. The Maldives rate "high" on the Human Development Index, with per-capita income significantly higher than other SAARC nations.
The Maldives was a member of the Commonwealth from July 1982 until withdrawing from the organisation in October 2016 in protest at allegations by the other nations of its human-rights abuses and failing democracy. The Maldives rejoined the Commonwealth on 1 February 2020 after showing evidence of functioning democratic processes and popular support.
According to legends the first settlers of the Maldives were people known as Dheyvis. The first Kingdom of the Maldives was known as Dheeva Maari. In the 3rd century BC during the visit of emissaries sent by Emperor Asoka, Maldives was known as Dheeva Mahal.
During c. 1100 - 1166, Maldives was also referred as Diva Kudha and the Laccadive archipelago which was a part of Maldives was then referred to as Diva Khanbar by the scholar and polymath al-Biruni (973-1048).
The name "Maldives" may also derive from Sanskrit ' (garland) and ' (island), or "Maala Divaina" ("Necklace Islands") in Sinhala. The Maldivian people are called "Dhivehin". The word "Dheeb/Deeb" (archaic "Dhivehi", related to Sanskrit , "") means "island", and "Dhives" ("Dhivehin") means "islanders" (i.e., Maldivians).
The ancient Sri Lankan chronicle "Mahawamsa" refers to an island called "Mahiladiva" ("Island of Women", महिलादिभ) in Pali, which is probably a mistranslation of the same Sanskrit word meaning "garland".
Jan Hogendorn, Grossman Professor of Economics, theorises that the name Maldives derives from the Sanskrit ' (), meaning "garland of islands". In Tamil, "Garland of Islands" can be translated as ' (). In Malayalam, "Garland of Islands" can be translated as ' (). In Kannada, "Garland of Islands" can be translated as ' (). None of these names is mentioned in any literature, but classical Sanskrit texts dating back to the Vedic period mention the "Hundred Thousand Islands" (""), a generic name which would include not only the Maldives, but also the Laccadives, Aminidivi Islands, Minicoy, and the Chagos island groups.
Some medieval travellers such as Ibn Battuta called the islands ' () from the Arabic word ' ("palace"), which must be how the Berber traveller interpreted the local name, having been through Muslim North India, where Perso-Arabic words were introduced to the local vocabulary. This is the name currently inscribed on the scroll in the Maldive state emblem. The classical Persian/Arabic name for Maldives is '. The Dutch referred to the islands as the ' (), while the British anglicised the local name for the islands first to the "Maldive Islands" and later to "Maldives".
Garcia da Orta writes in a conversational book first published in 1563, writes as follows: "I must tell you that I have heard it said that the natives do not call it Maldiva but Nalediva. In the Malabar language "nale" means four and "diva" island. So that in that language the word signifies "four islands," while we, corrupting the name, call it Maldiva."
The Maldives is an old nation and well over 2,500 years according to legends of the southern atolls.
According to the book "Kitāb fi āthār Mīdhu al-qādimah (كتاب في آثار ميذو القديمة) ("On the Ancient Ruins of Meedhoo")" written in the 17th century in Arabic by Allama Ahmed Shihabuddine ( Allama Shihab al-Din ) of Meedhoo in Addu Atoll, the first settlers of the Maldives were people known as Dheyvis. They came from the Kalibanga in India. The time of their arrival is unknown but it was before Emperor Asoka's kingdom in 269-232 BC. Shihabuddine's story tallies remarkably well with the recorded history of South Asia and that of copperplate documents of Maldives known as Loamaafaanu.
The "Maapanansa", the copper plates on which the history of first Kings of Maldives from the Solar Dynasty, were lost quite early on.
A 4th-century notice written by Ammianus Marcellinus (362 AD) speaks of gifts sent to the Roman emperor Julian by a deputation from the nation of Divi. The name Divi is very similar to Dheyvi who were the first settlers of Maldives.
The ancient history of Maldives is told in copperplates, ancients scripts carved on coral artifacts, traditions, language and different ethnicities of Maldivians.
The first Maldivians did not leave any archaeological artifacts. Their buildings were probably built of wood, palm fronds, and other perishable materials, which would have quickly decayed in the salt and wind of the tropical climate. Moreover, chiefs or headmen did not reside in elaborate stone palaces, nor did their religion require the construction of large temples or compounds.
Comparative studies of Maldivian oral, linguistic, and cultural traditions confirm that the first settlers were people from the southern shores of the neighboring Indian subcontinent, including the Giraavaru people, mentioned in ancient legends and local folklore about the establishment of the capital and kingly rule in Malé.
A strong underlying layer of Dravidian population and culture survives in Maldivian society, with a clear Tamil-Malayalam substratum in the language, which also appears in place names, kinship terms, poetry, dance, and religious beliefs. Malabari seafaring culture led to the settlement of the Islands by Malayali seafarers.
Despite being just mentioned briefly in most history books, the 1,400-year-long Buddhist period has foundational importance in the history of the Maldives. It was during this period that the culture of the Maldives both developed and flourished, a culture which survives today. The Maldivian language, early Maldive scripts, architecture, ruling institutions, customs, and manners of the Maldivians originated at the time when the Maldives were a Buddhist kingdom.
Buddhism probably spread to the Maldives in the 3rd century BC at the time of Emperor Ashoka's expansion and became the dominant religion of the people of the Maldives until the 12th century AD. The ancient Maldivian Kings promoted Buddhism, and the first Maldive writings and artistic achievements, in the form of highly developed sculpture and architecture, originate from that period. Nearly all archaeological remains in the Maldives are from Buddhist stupas and monasteries, and all artifacts found to date display characteristic Buddhist iconography.
Buddhist (and Hindu) temples were Mandala shaped. They are oriented according to the four cardinal points with the main gate facing east. Local historian Hassan Ahmed Maniku counted as many as 59 islands with Buddhist archaeological sites in a provisional list he published in 1990.
The importance of the Arabs as traders in the Indian Ocean by the 12th century may partly explain why the last Buddhist king of Maldives, Dhovemi, converted to Islam in the year 1153 (or 1193). Adopting the Muslim title of Sultan Muhammad ibn Abdullah, he initiated a series of six Islamic dynasties that lasted until 1932 when the sultanate became elective. The formal title of the sultan up to 1965 was, "Sultan of Land and Sea, Lord of the twelve-thousand islands and Sultan of the Maldives" which came with the style "Highness".
Somali Muslim Abu al-Barakat Yusuf al-Barbari, also known as Aw Barkhadle, is traditionally credited for this conversion. According to the story told to Ibn Battutah, a mosque was built with the inscription: 'The Sultan Ahmad Shanurazah accepted Islam at the hand of Abu al-Barakat Yusuf al-Barbari.' Some scholars have suggested the possibility of Ibn Battuta misreading Maldive texts, and having a bias towards the North African, Maghrebi narrative of this Shaykh, instead of the East African origins account that was known as well at the time. Even when Ibn Battuta visited the islands, the governor of the island at that time was Abd Aziz Al Mogadishawi, a Somali
Scholars have posited another scenario where Abu al-Barakat Yusuf al-Barbari might have been a native of Barbera, a significant trading port on the northwestern coast of Somalia. "Barbara" or "Barbaroi" (Berbers), as the ancestors of the Somalis were referred to by medieval Arab and ancient Greek geographers, respectively. This is also seen when Ibn Batuta visited Mogadishu, he mentions that the Sultan at that time, "Abu Bakr ibn Shaikh Omar", was a Berber (Somali). According to scholars, Abu al-Barakat Yusuf al-Barbari was Yusuf bin Ahmad al-Kawneyn, a famous native Somali scholar known for establishing the Walashma dynasty of the Horn of Africa. After his conversion of the population of Dogor (now known as Aw Barkhadle), a town in Somalia, he is also credited to have been responsible for spreading Islam in the Maldivian islands, establishing the Hukuru Miskiy, and converting the Maldivian population to Islam. Ibn Batuta states the Maldivian king was converted by Abu al-Barakat Yusuf al-Barbari (Blessed Father of Somalia).
Others have it he may have been from the Persian town of Tabriz. The first reference to an Iranian origin dates to an 18th-century Persian text.
His venerated tomb now stands on the grounds of Medhu Ziyaaraiy, across the street from the Friday Mosque, or Hukuru Miskiy, in Malé. Built in 1656, this is the oldest mosque in Maldives. Following the Islamic concept that before Islam there was the time of Jahiliya (ignorance), in the history books used by Maldivians the introduction of Islam at the end of the 12th century is considered the cornerstone of the country's history.
Compared to the other areas of South Asia, the conversion of the Maldives to Islam happened relatively late. Arab traders had converted populations in the Malabar Coast since the 7th century, and Muhammad Bin Qāsim had converted large swathes of Sindh to Islam at about the same time. The Maldives remained a Buddhist kingdom for another 500 years after the conversion of Malabar Coast and Sindh—perhaps as the southwesternmost Buddhist country. Arabic became the prime language of administration (instead of Persian and Urdu), and the Maliki school of jurisprudence was introduced, both hinting at direct contacts with the core of the Arab world.
Middle Eastern seafarers had just begun to take over the Indian Ocean trade routes in the 10th century and found Maldives to be an important link in those routes as the first landfall for traders from Basra sailing to Southeast Asia. Trade involved mainly cowrie shells—widely used as a form of currency throughout Asia and parts of the East African coast—and coir fiber. The Bengal Sultanate, where cowrie shells were used as legal tender, was one of the principal trading partners of the Maldives. The Bengal–Maldives cowry shell trade was the largest shell currency trade network in history.
The other essential product of the Maldives was coir, the fibre of the dried coconut husk, resistant to saltwater. It stitched together and rigged the dhows that plied the Indian Ocean. Maldivian coir was exported to Sindh, China, Yemen, and the Persian Gulf.
In 1558 the Portuguese established a small garrison with a "Viador" ("Viyazoru"), or overseer of a factory (trading post) in the Maldives, which they administered from their main colony in Goa. Their attempts to impose Christianity provoked a local revolt led by Muhammad Thakurufaanu al-A'uẓam and his two brothers, that fifteen years later drove the Portuguese out of Maldives. This event is now commemorated as National Day.
In the mid-17th century, the Dutch, who had replaced the Portuguese as the dominant power in Ceylon, established hegemony over Maldivian affairs without involving themselves directly in local matters, which were governed according to centuries-old Islamic customs.
The British expelled the Dutch from Ceylon in 1796 and included Maldives as a British protected area. The status of Maldives as a British protectorate was officially recorded in an 1887 agreement in which the sultan accepted British influence over Maldivian external relations and defence while retaining home rule, which continued to be regulated by Muslim traditional institutions in exchange for an annual tribute. The status of the islands was akin to other British protectorates in the Indian Ocean region, including Zanzibar and the Trucial States.
In the British period, the Sultan's powers were taken over by the Chief Minister, much to the chagrin of the British Governor-General who continued to deal with the ineffectual Sultan. Consequently, Britain encouraged the development of a constitutional monarchy, and the first Constitution was proclaimed in 1932. However, the new arrangements favoured neither the aging Sultan nor the wily Chief Minister, but rather a young crop of British-educated reformists. As a result, angry mobs were instigated against the Constitution which was publicly torn up.
Maldives remained a British crown protectorate until 1953 when the sultanate was suspended and the First Republic was declared under the short-lived presidency of Muhammad Amin Didi. While serving as prime minister during the 1940s, Didi nationalized the fish export industry. As president, he is remembered as a reformer of the education system and a promoter of women's rights. Conservatives in Malé eventually ousted his government, and during a riot over food shortages, Didi was beaten by a mob and died on a nearby island.
Beginning in the 1950s, the political history in Maldives was largely influenced by the British military presence in the islands. In 1954 the restoration of the sultanate perpetuated the rule of the past. Two years later, the United Kingdom obtained permission to reestablish its wartime RAF Gan airfield in the southernmost Addu Atoll, employing hundreds of locals. In 1957, however, the new prime minister, Ibrahim Nasir, called for a review of the agreement. Nasir was challenged in 1959 by a local secessionist movement in the three southernmost atolls that benefited economically from the British presence on Gan. This group cut ties with the Maldives government and formed an independent state, the United Suvadive Republic with Abdullah Afif as president and Hithadhoo as capital. One year later the Suvadive republic was scrapped after Nasir sent gunboats from Malé with government police, and Abdulla Afif went into exile. Meanwhile, in 1960 the Maldives had allowed the United Kingdom to continue to use both the Gan and the Hitaddu facilities for a thirty-year period, with the payment of £750,000 over the period of 1960 to 1965 for the purpose of Maldives' economic development. The base was closed in 1976 as part of the larger British withdrawal of permanently-stationed forces 'East of Suez'.
In line with the broader British policy of decolonisation, on 26 July 1965 an agreement was signed on behalf of the Sultan by Ibrahim Nasir Rannabandeyri Kilegefan, Prime Minister, and on behalf of the British government by Sir Michael Walker, British Ambassador-designate to the Maldive Islands, which ended the British responsibility for the defence and external affairs of the Maldives. The islands thus achieved full political independence, with the ceremony taking place at the British High Commissioner's Residence in Colombo. After this, the sultanate continued for another three years under Sir Muhammad Fareed Didi, who declared himself King upon independence.
On 15 November 1967, a vote was taken in parliament to decide whether the Maldives should continue as a constitutional monarchy or become a republic. Of the 44 members of parliament, 40 voted in favour of a republic. On 15 March 1968, a national referendum was held on the question, and 93.34% of those taking part voted in favour of establishing a republic. The republic was declared on 11 November 1968, thus ending the 853-year-old monarchy, which was replaced by a republic under the presidency of Ibrahim Nasir. As the King had held little real power, this was seen as a cosmetic change and required few alterations in the structures of government.
Tourism began to be developed on the archipelago by the beginning of the 1970s. The first resort in the Maldives was Kurumba Maldives which welcomed the first guests on 3 October 1972. The first accurate census was held in December 1977 and showed 142,832 people living in the Maldives.
Political infighting during the 1970s between Nasir's faction and other political figures led to the 1975 arrest and exile of elected prime minister Ahmed Zaki to a remote atoll. Economic decline followed the closure of the British airfield at Gan and the collapse of the market for dried fish, an important export. With support for his administration faltering, Nasir fled to Singapore in 1978, with millions of dollars from the treasury.
Maumoon Abdul Gayoom began his 30-year role as president in 1978, winning six consecutive elections without opposition. His election was seen as ushering in a period of political stability and economic development in view of Maumoon's priority to develop the poorer islands. Tourism flourished and increased foreign contact spurred development. However, Maumoon's rule was controversial, with some critics saying Maumoon was an autocrat who quelled dissent by limiting freedoms and political favouritism.
A series of coup attempts (in 1980, 1983, and 1988) by Nasir supporters and business interests tried to topple the government without success. While the first two attempts met with little success, the 1988 coup attempt involved a roughly 80 strong mercenary force of the PLOTE who seized the airport and caused Maumoon to flee from house to house until the intervention of 1,600 Indian troops airlifted into Malé restored order.
A November 1988 coup was headed by Muhammadu Ibrahim Lutfee, a businessman. On the night of 3 November 1988, the Indian Air Force airlifted a parachute battalion group from Agra and flew them over to the Maldives. The Indian paratroopers landed at Hulhulé and secured the airfield and restored the government rule at Malé within hours. The brief operation, labelled "Operation Cactus", also involved the Indian Navy.
On 26 December 2004, following the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, the Maldives were devastated by a tsunami. Only nine islands were reported to have escaped any flooding, while fifty-seven islands faced serious damage to critical infrastructure, fourteen islands had to be totally evacuated, and six islands were destroyed. A further twenty-one resort islands were forced to close because of tsunami damage. The total damage was estimated at more than US$400 million, or some 62% of the GDP. 102 Maldivians and 6 foreigners reportedly died in the tsunami. The destructive impact of the waves on the low-lying islands was mitigated by the fact there was no continental shelf or land mass upon which the waves could gain height. The tallest waves were reported to be high.
During the later part of Maumoon's rule, independent political movements emerged in Maldives, which challenged the then-ruling Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (Maldivian People's Party, MPP) and demanded democratic reform. The dissident journalist and activist Mohamed Nasheed founded the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) in 2003 and pressured Maumoon into allowing gradual political reforms. In 2008 a new constitution was approved and the first direct presidential elections occurred, which were won by Nasheed in the second round. His administration faced many challenges, including the huge debt left by the previous government, the economic downturn following the 2004 tsunami, overspending by means of overprinting of local currency (the rufiyaa), unemployment, corruption, and increasing drug use. Taxation on goods was imposed for the first time in the country, and import duties were reduced in many goods and services. Social welfare benefits were given to those aged 65 years or older, single parents, and those with special needs.
Social and political unrest grew in late 2011, following opposition campaigns in the name of protecting Islam. Nasheed controversially resigned from office after large number of police and army mutinied in February 2012. Nasheed's vice president, Mohammed Waheed Hassan, was sworn in as president.
Nasheed was later arrested, convicted of terrorism, and sentenced to 13 years. The trial was widely seen as flawed and political. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention called for Nasheed's immediate release.
The elections in late 2013 were highly contested. Former president Nasheed won the most votes in the first round, but the Supreme Court annulled it despite the positive assessment of international election observers. In the re-run vote Abdulla Yameen, half-brother of the former president Maumoon, assumed the presidency. Yameen introduced increased engagement with China, and promoted a policy of connecting Islam with anti-Western rhetoric. Yameen survived an assassination attempt in late 2015. Vice president Ahmed Adeeb was later arrested together with 17 supporters for "public order offences" and the government instituted a broader crackdown against political dissent. A state of emergency was later declared ahead of a planned anti-government rally, and the people's Majlis accelerated the removal of Adeeb.
In the 2018 elections Ibrahim Mohamed Solih won the most votes, and became President.
Adeeb was freed by courts in Male in July 2019 after his conviction on charges of terrorism and corruption was overruled, but was placed under a travel ban after the state prosecutor appealed the order in a corruption and money laundering case. Adeeb escaped in a tugboat to seek asylum in India. It is understood that the Indian Coast Guard escorted the tugboat to the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) and he was then “transferred” to a Maldivian Coast Guard ship, where officials took him into custody.
The Maldives consists of 1,192 coral islands grouped in a double chain of 26 atolls, that stretch along a length of 871 kilometers north-south direction, spread over roughly , only 298 square kilometers of that is dry land, making this one of the world's most dispersed countries. It lies between latitudes 1°S and 8°N, and longitudes 72° and 74°E. The atolls are composed of live coral reefs and sand bars, situated atop a submarine ridge long that rises abruptly from the depths of the Indian Ocean and runs north to south.
Only near the southern end of this natural coral barricade do two open passages permit safe ship navigation from one side of the Indian Ocean to the other through the territorial waters of Maldives. For administrative purposes, the Maldivian government organised these atolls into 21 administrative divisions. The largest island of Maldives is that of Gan, which belongs to Laamu Atoll or Hahdhummathi Maldives. In Addu Atoll, the westernmost islands are connected by roads over the reef (collectively called Link Road) and the total length of the road is .
Maldives is the lowest country in the world, with maximum and average natural ground levels of only and above sea level, respectively. In areas where construction exists, however, this has been increased to several metres. More than 80 per cent of the country's land is composed of coral islands which rise less than one metre above sea level. As a result, the Maldives are at high risk of being submerged due to rising sea levels. The UN's environmental panel has warned that, at current rates, sea level rise would be high enough to make the Maldives uninhabitable by 2100.
The Maldives has a tropical monsoon climate (Am) under the Köppen climate classification, which is affected by the large landmass of South Asia to the north. Because the Maldives has the lowest elevation of any country in the world, the temperature is constantly hot and often humid. The presence of this landmass causes differential heating of land and water. These factors set off a rush of moisture-rich air from the Indian Ocean over South Asia, resulting in the southwest monsoon. Two seasons dominate Maldives' weather: the dry season associated with the winter northeastern monsoon and the rainy season associated with the southwest monsoon which brings strong winds and storms.
The shift from the dry northeast monsoon to the moist southwest monsoon occurs during April and May. During this period, the southwest winds contribute to the formation of the southwest monsoon, which reaches Maldives in the beginning of June and lasts until the end of November. However, the weather patterns of Maldives do not always conform to the monsoon patterns of South Asia. The annual rainfall averages in the north and in the south.
The monsoonal influence is greater in the north of the Maldives than in the south, more influenced by the equatorial currents.
The average high temperature is 31.5 degree Celsius and the average low temperature is 26.4 degree Celsius.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2007 report predicted the upper limit of the sea level rises will be by 2100, which means that most of the republic's 200 inhabited islands may need to be abandoned. According to researchers from the University of Southampton, the Maldives are the third most endangered island nation due to flooding from climate change as a percentage of population.
Former president Mohamed Nasheed has been highly outspoken about this issue, saying in 2012 that "If carbon emissions continue at the rate they are climbing today, my country will be under water in seven years." He has called for more climate change mitigation action while on the American television shows "The Daily Show" and the "Late Show with David Letterman", and hosted "the world's first underwater cabinet meeting" in 2009 to raise awareness of the threats posed by climate change. Concerns over sea level rise have also been expressed by Nasheed's predecessor, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.
In 2008, Nasheed announced plans to look into purchasing new land in India, Sri Lanka, and Australia because of his concerns about global warming, and the possibility of much of the islands being inundated with water from rising sea levels. The purchase of land will be made from a fund generated by tourism. The president explained his intentions: "We do not want to leave the Maldives, but we also do not want to be climate refugees living in tents for decades".
By 2020, Maldives plans to eliminate or offset all of its greenhouse gas emissions. At the 2009 International Climate Talks, Nasheed explained that: For us swearing off fossil fuels is not only the right thing to do, it is in our economic self-interest... Pioneering countries will free themselves from the unpredictable price of foreign oil; they will capitalise on the new green economy of the future, and they will enhance their moral standing giving them greater political influence on the world stage.
In 2020, a three-year study at the University of Plymouth found that as tides move sediment to create higher elevation, the islands, and also Tuvalu and Kiribati, may rise instead of sinking.
Environmental issues other than sea level rise include bad waste disposal and beach theft. Although the Maldives are kept relatively pristine and little litter can be found on the islands, no good waste disposal sites exist. Most trash from Malé and other resorts is simply dumped at Thilafushi.
31 protected areas are administered by the Ministry of Environment and Energy and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the Maldives.
The Maldives have a range of different habitats including deep sea, shallow coast, and reef ecosystems, fringing mangroves, wetlands and dry land. There are 187 species of coral forming the coral reefs. This area of the Indian Ocean, alone, houses 1,100 species of fish, 5 species of sea turtle, 21 species of whale and dolphin, 400 species of mollusc, and 83 species of echinoderms. The area is also populated by a number of crustacean species: 120 copepod, 15 amphipod, as well as more than 145 crab and 48 shrimp species.
Among the many marine families represented are pufferfish, fusiliers, jackfish, lionfish, oriental sweetlips, reef sharks, groupers, eels, snappers, bannerfish, batfish, humphead wrasse, spotted eagle rays, scorpionfish, lobsters, nudibranches, angelfish, butterflyfish, squirrelfish, soldierfish, glassfish, surgeonfish, unicornfish, triggerfish, Napoleon wrasse, and barracuda.
These coral reefs are home to a variety of marine ecosystems that vary from planktonic organisms to whale sharks. Sponges have gained importance as five species have displayed anti-tumor and anti-cancer properties.
In 1998, sea-temperature warming of as much as due to a single El Niño phenomenon event caused coral bleaching, killing two-thirds of the nation's coral reefs.
In an effort to induce the regrowth of the reefs, scientists placed electrified cones anywhere from below the surface to provide a substrate for larval coral attachment. In 2004, scientists witnessed corals regenerating. Corals began to eject pink-orange eggs and sperm. The growth of these electrified corals was five times faster than untreated corals. Scientist Azeez Hakim stated:
Again, in 2016, the coral reefs of the Maldives experienced a severe bleaching incident. Up to 95% of coral around some islands have died, and, even after six months, 100% of young coral transplants died. The surface water temperatures reached an all-time high in 2016, at 31 degrees Celsius in May.
Recent scientific studies suggest that the faunistic composition can vary greatly between neighbour atolls, especially in terms of benthic fauna. Differences in terms of fishing pressure (including poaching) could be the cause.
Maldives is a presidential republic, with extensive influence of the president as head of government and head of state. The president heads the executive branch, and appoints the cabinet which is approved by the People's Majlis (Parliament). He leads the armed forces. There is no separation of powers. The current president as of 17 November 2018 is Ibrahim Mohamed Solih. Members of the unicameral Majlis serve five-year terms, with the total number of members determined by atoll populations. At the 2014 election, 77 members were elected. The People's Majlis, located in Malé, houses members from all over the country.
The republican constitution came into force in 1968, and was amended in 1970, 1972, and 1975. On 27 November 1997 it was replaced by another Constitution assented to by then President Maumoon. This Constitution came into force on 1 January 1998. The current Constitution of Maldives was ratified by President Maumoon on 7 August 2008, and came into effect immediately, replacing and repealing the constitution of 1998. This new constitution includes a judiciary run by an independent commission, and independent commissions to oversee elections and fight corruption. It also reduces the executive powers vested under the president and strengthens the parliament. All state that the president is head of state, head of government and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces of the Maldives.
In 2018, the ruling Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM-Y)'s tensions with opposition parties and subsequent crackdown was termed as an "assault on democracy" by the UN Human Rights chief.
According to the Constitution of Maldives, "the judges are independent, and subject only to the Constitution and the law. When deciding matters on which the Constitution or the law is silent, judges must consider Islamic Shari'ah".
Islam is the official religion of the Maldives and open practice of any other religion is forbidden. The 2008 constitution says that the republic "is based on the principles of Islam" and that "no law contrary to any principle of Islam can be applied". Non-Muslims are prohibited from becoming citizens.
The requirement to adhere to a particular religion and prohibition of public worship following other religions is contrary to Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Maldives has recently become party and was addressed in Maldives' reservation in adhering to the Covenant claiming that "The application of the principles set out in Article 18 of the Covenant shall be without prejudice to the Constitution of the Republic of the Maldives."
Same-sex relations are illegal in the Maldives.
Since 1996, the Maldives has been the official progress monitor of the Indian Ocean Commission. In 2002, the Maldives began to express interest in the commission but had not applied for membership. Maldives' interest relates to its identity as a small island state, especially economic development and environmental preservation, and its desire for closer relations with France, a main actor in the IOC region.
The Maldives is a founding member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). The republic joined the Commonwealth in 1982, some 17 years after gaining independence from the United Kingdom. In October 2016, Maldives announced its withdrawal from the Commonwealth in protest at allegations of human rights abuse and failing democracy. The Maldives enjoys close ties with Commonwealth members Seychelles and Mauritius. The Maldives and Comoros are also both members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Following his election as president in 2018, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and his Cabinet decided that the Maldives would apply to rejoin the Commonwealth, with readmission occurring on 1 February 2020.
The Maldives National Defence Force is the combined security organisation responsible for defending the security and sovereignty of the Maldives, having the primary task of being responsible for attending to all internal and external security needs of the Maldives, including the protection of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and the maintenance of peace and security. The MNDF component branches are the Coast Guard, Marine Corps, Special Forces, Service Corps, and the Corps of Engineers.
As a water-bound nation, much of its security concerns lie at sea. Almost 99% of the country is covered by sea and the remaining 1% land is scattered over an area of × , with the largest island being not more than . Therefore, the duties assigned to the MNDF of maintaining surveillance over Maldives' waters and providing protection against foreign intruders poaching in the EEZ and territorial waters, are immense tasks from both logistical and economic viewpoints. In 2019, Maldives signed the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
The Coast Guard plays a vital role in carrying out these functions. To provide timely security its patrol boats are stationed at various MNDF Regional Headquarters. The Coast Guard is also assigned to respond to the maritime distress calls and to conduct search and rescue operations in a timely manner. Maritime pollution control exercises are conducted regularly on an annual basis for familiarisation and handling of such hazardous situations.
Human rights in the Maldives is a contentious issue. In its 2011 Freedom in the World report, Freedom House declared the Maldives "Partly Free", claiming a reform process which had made headway in 2009 and 2010 had stalled. The United States Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor claims in their 2012 report on human rights practices in the country that the most significant problems are corruption, lack of religious freedom, and abuse and unequal treatment of women.
The Maldives has twenty-six natural atolls and few island groups on isolated reefs, all of which have been divided into twenty-one administrative divisions (17 administrative atolls and cities of Malé, Addu, Fuvahmulah and Kulhudhuffushi).
Each atoll is administered by an elected Atoll Council. The islands are administered by an elected Island Council.
In addition to a name, every administrative division is identified by the Maldivian code letters, such as "Haa Alif" for Thiladhunmati Uthuruburi (Thiladhunmathi North); and by a Latin code letter. The first corresponds to the geographical Maldivian name of the atoll; the second is a code adopted for convenience. As there are certain islands in different atolls that have the same name, for administrative purposes this code is quoted before the name of the island, for example: Baa Funadhoo, Kaafu Funadhoo, Gaafu-Alifu Funadhoo. Since most atolls have very long geographical names it is also used whenever the long name is inconvenient, for example in the atoll website names.
The introduction of code-letter names has been a source of much puzzlement and misunderstandings, especially among foreigners. Many people have come to think that the code-letter of the administrative atoll is its new name and that it has replaced its geographical name. Under such circumstances it is hard to know which is the correct name to use.
Historically, the Maldives provided enormous quantities of cowry shells, an international currency of the early ages. From the 2nd century AD the islands were known as the 'Money Isles' by the Arabs. "Monetaria moneta" were used for centuries as a currency in Africa, and huge amounts of Maldivian cowries were introduced into Africa by western nations during the period of slave trade. The cowry is now the symbol of the Maldives Monetary Authority.
In the early 1970s, the Maldives was one of the world's 20 poorest countries, with a population of 100,000. The economy at the time was largely dependent on fisheries and trading local goods such as coir rope, ambergris (Maavaharu), and coco de mer (Tavakkaashi) with neighboring countries and East Asian countries.
The Maldivian government began a largely successful economic reform programme in the 1980s, initiated by lifting import quotas and giving more opportunities to the private sector. At the time tourism sector which would play a significant role in the nation's development was at its infant stage.
Agriculture and manufacturing continue to play lesser roles in the economy, constrained by the limited availability of cultivable land and the shortage of domestic labour.
The Maldives remained largely unknown to tourists until the early 1970s. Only 189 islands are home to its 447,137 inhabitants. The other islands are used entirely for economic purposes, of which tourism and agriculture are the most dominant. Tourism accounts for 28% of the GDP and more than 60% of the Maldives' foreign exchange receipts. Over 90% of government tax revenue comes from import duties and tourism-related taxes.
The development of tourism fostered the overall growth of the country's economy. It created direct and indirect employment and income generation opportunities in other related industries. The first tourist resorts were opened in 1972 with Bandos Island Resort and Kurumba Village (the current name is Kurumba Maldives), which transformed the Maldives economy.
According to the Ministry of Tourism, the emergence of tourism in 1972 transformed the economy, moving rapidly from dependence on fisheries to tourism. In just three and a half decades, the industry became the main source of income. Tourism was also the country's biggest foreign currency earner and the single largest contributor to the GDP. , 89 resorts in the Maldives offered over 17,000 beds and hosted over 600,000 tourists annually. In 2019 over 1.7 million visitors came to the islands.
The number of resorts increased from 2 to 92 between 1972 and 2007. , over 8,380,000 tourists had visited Maldives.
The country has six heritage Maldivian coral mosques listed as UNESCO tentative sites.
Visitors to the Maldives do not need to apply for a visa pre-arrival, regardless of their country of origin, provided they have a valid passport, proof of onward travel, and the money to be self-sufficient while in the country.
Most visitors arrive at Velana International Airport, on Hulhulé Island, adjacent to the capital Malé. The airport is served by flights to and from India, Sri Lanka, Doha, Dubai, Singapore, Istanbul, and major airports in South-East Asia, as well as charters from Europe. Gan Airport, on the southern atoll of Addu, also serves an international flight to Milan several times a week. British Airways offers direct flights to the Maldives around 2–3 times per week.
For many centuries the Maldivian economy was entirely dependent on fishing and other marine products. Fishing remains the main occupation of the people and the government gives priority to the fisheries sector.
The mechanisation of the traditional fishing boat called "dhoni" in 1974 was a major milestone in the development of the fisheries industry. A fish canning plant was installed on Felivaru in 1977, as a joint venture with a Japanese firm. In 1979, a Fisheries Advisory Board was set up with the mandate of advising the government on policy guidelines for the overall development of the fisheries sector. Manpower development programmes began in the early 1980s, and fisheries education was incorporated into the school curriculum. Fish aggregating devices and navigational aids were located at various strategic points. Moreover, the opening up of the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the Maldives for fisheries has further enhanced the growth of the fisheries sector.
, fisheries contributed over 15% of the country's GDP and engaged about 30% of the country's work force. Fisheries were also the second-largest foreign exchange earner after tourism.
The largest ethnic group is Dhivehin, i.e. the Maldivians, native to the historic region of the Maldive Islands comprising today's Republic of Maldives and the island of Minicoy in Union territory of Lakshadweep, India. They share the same culture and speak the Dhivehi language. They are principally an Indo-Aryan people, having traces of Middle Eastern, South Asian, Austronesian and African genes in the population.
In the past there was also a small Tamil population known as the Giraavaru people. This group have now been almost completely absorbed into the larger Maldivian society but were once native to the island of Giraavaru (Kaafu Atoll). This island was evacuated in 1968 due to heavy erosion of the island.
Some social stratification exists on the islands. It is not rigid, since rank is based on varied factors, including occupation, wealth, Islamic virtue, and family ties. Instead of a complex caste system, there was merely a distinction between noble (bēfulhu) and common people in the Maldives. Members of the social elite are concentrated in Malé.
The population doubled by 1978, and the population growth rate peaked at 3.4% in 1985. At the 2006 census, the population had reached 298,968, although the census in 2000 showed that the population growth rate had declined to 1.9%. Life expectancy at birth stood at 46 years in 1978, and later rose to 72. Infant mortality has declined from 12.7% in 1977 to 1.2% today, and adult literacy reached 99%. Combined school enrolment reached the high 90s. The population was projected to have reached 317,280 in 2010.
The 2014 Population and Housing Census listed the total population in Maldives as 437,535: 339,761 resident Maldivians and 97,774 resident foreigners, approximately 16% of the total population. However, it is believed that foreigners have been undercounted. there are 177,585 expatriate workers, out of which 63,000 are estimated to be undocumented in the Maldives: 3,045 Chinese, 3,544 Nepalese, 14,311 Sri Lankans, 24,379 Indians, and 112,158 Bangladeshis, making them the largest group of foreigners working in the country. Other immigrants include Filipinos in the Maldives as well as various Western foreign workers.
After the long Buddhist period of Maldivian history, Muslim traders introduced Islam. Maldivians converted to Islam by the mid-12th century. The islands have had a long history of Sufic orders, as can be seen in the history of the country such as the building of tombs. They were used until as recently as the 1980s for seeking the help of buried saints. They can be seen next to some old mosques and are considered a part of Maldives's cultural heritage.
Other aspects of tassawuf, such as ritualised dhikr ceremonies called Maulūdu (Mawlid)—the liturgy of which included recitations and certain supplications in a melodical tone—existed until very recent times. These Maulūdu festivals were held in ornate tents specially built for the occasion. At present Islam is the official religion of the entire population, as adherence to it is required for citizenship.
According to Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta, the person responsible for this conversion was a Sunni Muslim visitor named Abu al-Barakat Yusuf al-Barbari, sailing from Morocco. He is also referred to as Tabrizugefaanu. His venerated tomb now stands on the grounds of Medhu Ziyaaraiy, across the street from the Friday Mosque, or Hukuru Miskiy, in Malé. Built in 1656, this is the country's oldest mosque.
The official and common language is Dhivehi, an Indo-Aryan language closely related to the Sinhala language of Sri Lanka. The first known script used to write Dhivehi is the "eveyla akuru" script, which is found in historical recording of kings ("raadhavalhi"). Later a script called "dhives akuru" was used for a long period. The present-day script is called Thaana and is written from right to left. Thaana is said to have been introduced by the reign of Mohamed Thakurufaanu.
English is widely spoken by the locals of the Maldives. Following the nation's opening to the outside world, the introduction of English as a medium of instruction at secondary and tertiary level of education, and its government's recognition of the opportunities offered through tourism, English has now firmly established itself in the country. As such, the Maldives are quite similar to the countries in the Gulf region (cf. Randall & Samimi, 2010; Boyle, 2012). The nation is undergoing vast societal change, and English is part of this.
The culture of the Maldives is influenced by the cultures of the people of different ethnicities who have settled on the islands throughout the times.
Since the 12th century AD there were also influences from Arabia in the language and culture of the Maldives because of the conversion to Islam and its location as a crossroads in the central Indian Ocean. This was due to the long trading history between the far east and the middle east.
Reflective of this is the fact that the Maldives has had the highest national divorce rate in the world for many decades. This, it is hypothesised, is due to a combination of liberal Islamic rules about divorce and the relatively loose marital bonds that have been identified as common in non- and semi-sedentary peoples without a history of fully developed agrarian property and kinship relations.
Velana International Airport is the principal gateway to the Maldives; it is near the capital city Malé and is surrounded by water. International travel is available on government-owned Island Aviation Services (branded as Maldivian), which operates to nearly all Maldives domestic airports with several Bombardier Dash 8 aircraft, and one A320 with international service to India, Bangladesh, China, and Thailand.
In Maldives there are three main ways to travel between islands: by domestic flight, by seaplane, or by boat. For several years there were two seaplane companies operating: TMA (Trans Maldivian Airways) and Maldivian Air Taxi, but these merged in 2013 under the name TMA. The seaplane fleet is entirely made up of DHC-6 Twin Otters. There is also another airline, Flyme, which operates using ATR planes to domestic airports, principally Maamigili, Dharavandhoo and some others. Manta Air begins its first scheduled seaplane service. Its seaplane fleet is made up of DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft. In addition to the seaplane service, Manta Air utilizes ATR 72-600 aircraft to operate domestic flights to Dhaalu Airport, Dharavandhoo Airport and Kooddoo Airport from the main Velana International Airport. Depending on the distance of the destination island from the airport, resorts organise speedboat transfers or seaplane flights directly to the resort island jetty for their guests. Several daily flights operate from Velana International Airport to the 12 domestic and international airports in the country. Scheduled ferries also operate from Malé to many of the atolls. The traditional Maldivian boat is called a dhoni. Speedboats and seaplanes tend to be more expensive, while travel by dhoni, although slower, is relatively cheaper and convenient.
The Maldives National University is one of the country's three institutions of higher education. Its mission statement is as follows:
To create, discover, preserve and disseminate knowledge that are necessary to enhance the lives and livelihoods of people and essential for the cultural, social and economic development of the society so that this nation shall remain free and Islamic forever.
In 1973, the Allied Health Services Training Centre (the forerunner of the Faculty of Health Sciences) was established by the Ministry of Health. The Vocational Training Centre was established in 1974, providing training for mechanical and electrical trades. In 1984, the Institute for Teacher Education was created and the School of Hotel and Catering Services was established in 1987 to provide trained personnel for the tourist industry. In 1991, the Institute of Management and Administration was created to train staff for public and private services. In 1998, the Maldives College of Higher Education was founded. The Institute of Shar'ah and Law was founded in January 1999. In 2000 the college launched its first degree programme, Bachelor of Arts. On 17 January 2011 the Maldives National University Act was passed by the President of the Maldives; The Maldives National University was named on 15 February 2011.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19117
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History of the Maldives
The history of the Maldives is intertwined with the history of the broader Indian subcontinent and the surrounding regions, comprising the areas of South Asia and Indian Ocean; and the modern nation consisting of 28 natural atolls, comprising 1194 islands. Historically, the Maldives had a strategic importance because of its location on the major marine routes of the Indian Ocean. The Maldives' nearest neighbours are Sri Lanka and India, both of which have had cultural and economic ties with Maldives for centuries. The Maldives provided the main source of cowrie shells, then used as a currency throughout Asia and parts of the East African coast. Most probably Maldives were influenced by Kalingas of ancient India who were earliest sea traders to Sri Lanka and Maldives from India and were responsible for the spread of Buddhism. Hence ancient Hindu culture has an indelible impact on Maldives' local culture.
After the 16th century, when colonial powers took over much of the trade in the Indian Ocean, first the Portuguese, then the Dutch, and the French occasionally meddled in local politics. However, this interference ended when the Maldives became a British Protectorate in the 19th century and the Maldivian monarchs were granted a good measure of self-governance.
The Maldives gained total independence from the British on 26 July 1965. However, the British continued to maintain an air base on the island of Gan in the southernmost atoll until 1976. The British departure in 1976 at the height of the Cold War almost immediately triggered foreign speculation about the future of the air base. Apparently the Soviet Union made a move to request the use of the base, but the Maldives refused.
The greatest challenge facing the republic in the early 1990s was the need for rapid economic development and modernisation, given the country's limited resource base in fishing, agriculture and tourism. Concern was also evident over a projected long-term sea level rise, which would prove disastrous to the low-lying coral islands.
These first Maldivians did not leave any archaeological remains. Their buildings were probably built of wood, palm fronds and other perishable materials, which would have quickly decayed in the salt and wind of the tropical climate. Moreover, chiefs or headmen did not reside in elaborate stone palaces, nor did their religion require the construction of large temples or compounds.
Comparative studies of Maldivian oral, linguistic and cultural traditions and customs indicate that one of the earliest settlers were descendants of Tamils from ancient Tamilakam in the Sangam period (300 BC–AD 300), most probably fishermen from the southwest coasts of present India and the northwestern shores of Sri Lanka. One such community are the Giraavaru people. They are mentioned in ancient legends and local folklore about the establishment of the capital and kingly rule in Malé. Depictions of these early societies see, according to some, a matriarchal society with each atoll ruled by a chief queen according to some accounts or by others, several theocratic societies ruled by priests known as "Sawamias" of heliolatric, selenolatric and astrolatric religions.
Several foreign travellers, mainly Arabs, had written about a kingdom of the Maldives ruled over by a queen. al-Idrisi, referring to earlier writers, mentions the name of one of the queens, Damahaar, who was a member of the "Aadeetta" (Sun) dynasty.
A strong underlying layer of Dravidian population and culture survives in Maldivian society, with a clear Tamil-Malayalam substratum in the language, which also appears in place names, kinship terms, poetry, dance, and religious beliefs. Malabari seafaring culture led to Malayali settling of the Laccadives, and the Maldives were evidently viewed as an extension of that archipelago. Some argue (from the presence of Jat, Gujjar Titles and Gotra names) that Sindhis also accounted for an early layer of migration. Seafaring from Debal began during the Indus valley civilisation. The Jatakas and Puranas show abundant evidence of this maritime trade; the use of similar traditional boat building techniques in Northwestern South Asia and the Maldives, and the presence of silver punch mark coins from both regions, gives additional weight to this. There are minor signs of Southeast Asian settlers, probably some adrift from the main group of Austronesian reed boat migrants that settled Madagascar.
The earliest written history of the Maldives is marked by the arrival of Sinhalese people, who were descended from the exiled Magadha Prince Vijaya from the ancient city known as Sinhapura in North East India. He and his party of several hundred landed in Sri Lanka, and some in the Maldives circa 543 to 483 BC. According to the "Mahavansa", one of the ships that sailed with Prince Vijaya, who went to Sri Lanka around 500 BC, went adrift and arrived at an island called "Mahiladvipika", which is being identified with the Maldives. It is also said that at that time, the people from Mahiladvipika used to travel to Sri Lanka. Their settlement in Sri Lanka and the Maldives marks a significant change in demographics and the development of the Indo-Aryan language Dhivehi, which is most similar in grammar, phonology, and structure to Sinhala, and especially to the more ancient Elu Prakrit, which has less Pali.
Alternatively, it is believed that "Vijaya" and his clan came from western India – a claim supported by linguistic and cultural features, and specific descriptions in the epics themselves, e.g. that "Vijaya" visited "Bharukaccha" (Bharuch in Gujarat) in his ship on the voyage down south.
Philostorgius, a Greek historian of Late Antiquity, wrote of a hostage among the Romans, from the island called "Diva", which is presumed to be the Maldives, who was baptised Theophilus. Theophilus was sent in the 350s to convert the Himyarites to Christianity, and went to his homeland from Arabia; he returned to Arabia, visited Axum, and settled in Antioch.
Despite being just mentioned briefly in most history books, the 1,400-year-long Buddhist period has a foundational importance in the history of the Maldives. It was during this period that the culture of the Maldives as we now know it both developed and flourished. The Maldivian language, the first Maldive scripts, the architecture, the ruling institutions, the customs and manners of the Maldivians originated at the time when the Maldives were a Buddhist kingdom.
Before embracing Buddhism as their way of life, Maldivians had practised an ancient form of Hinduism, ritualistic traditions known as "Śrauta", in the form of venerating the "Surya" (the ancient ruling caste were of "Aadheetta" or "Suryavanshi" origins).
Buddhism probably spread to the Maldives in the 3rd century BC, at the time of Aśoka. Nearly all archaeological remains in the Maldives are from Buddhist stupas and monasteries, and all artifacts found to date display characteristic Buddhist iconography.
Buddhist (and Hindu) temples were Mandala shaped, they are oriented according to the four cardinal points, the main gate being towards the east. Since building space and materials were scarce, Maldivians constructed their places of worship on the foundations of previous buildings.
The ancient Buddhist stupas are called "havitta", "hatteli" or "ustubu" by the Maldivians according to the different atolls. These stupas and other archaeological remains, like foundations of Buddhist buildings Vihara, compound walls and stone baths, are found on many islands of the Maldives. They usually lie buried under mounds of sand and covered by vegetation. Local historian Hassan Ahmed Maniku counted as many as 59 islands with Buddhist archaeological sites in a provisional list he published in 1990. The largest monuments of the Buddhist era are in the islands fringing the eastern side of Haddhunmathi Atoll.
In the early 11th century, the Minicoy and Thiladhunmathi, and possibly other northern Atolls, were conquered by the medieval Chola Tamil emperor Raja Raja Chola I, thus becoming a part of the Chola Empire.
Unification of the archipelago is traditionally attributed to King Koimala.
According to a legend from Maldivian folklore, in the early 12th century AD, a medieval prince named Koimala, a nobleman of the Lion Race from Sri Lanka, sailed to Rasgetheemu island (literally "Town of the Royal House", or figuratively "King's Town") in the North Maalhosmadulu Atoll, and from there to Malé, and established a kingdom. By then, the "Aadeetta" (Sun) Dynasty (the Suryavanshi ruling cast) had for some time ceased to rule in Malé, possibly because of invasions by the Cholas of Southern India in the 10th century. Koimala Kalou (Lord Koimala), who reigned as King Maanaabarana, was a king of the "Homa" (Lunar) Dynasty (the Chandravanshi ruling cast), which some historians call the House of Theemuge.
The "Homa" (Lunar) dynasty sovereigns intermarried with the "Aaditta" (Sun) Dynasty. This is why the formal titles of Maldive kings until 1968 contained references to ""kula sudha ira"", which means "descended from the Moon and the Sun". No official record exists of the Aadeetta dynasty's reign. Since Koimala's reign, the Maldive throne was also known as the "Singaasana" (Lion Throne). Before then, and in some situations since, it was also known as the "Saridhaaleys" (Ivory Throne). Some historians credit Koimala with freeing the Maldives from Chola rule.
The first archaeological study of the remains of early cultures in the Maldives began with the work of H.C.P. Bell, a British commissioner of the Ceylon Civil Service. Bell was first ordered to the islands in late 1879 he returned twice to the Maldives to investigate ancient ruins. He studied the ancient mounds, called "havitta" or "ustubu" (these names are derived from chaitiya and stupa) () by the Maldivians, which are found on many of the atolls.
Early scholars like H.C.P. Bell, who resided in Sri Lanka most of his life, claim that Buddhism came to the Maldives from Sri Lanka and that the ancient Maldivians had followed Theravada Buddhism. Since then, new archaeological discoveries point to Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhist influences, which are likely to have come to the islands straight from the Subcontinent. An urn discovered in Maalhos (Ari Atoll) in the 1980s has a Vishvavajra inscribed with Protobengali script. This text was in the same script used in the ancient Buddhist centres of learning in Nalanda and Vikramashila. There is also a small Porites stupa in the Museum where the directional Dhyani Buddhas (Jinas) are etched in its four cardinal points as in the Mahayana tradition. Some coral blocks with fearsome heads of guardians are also displaying Vajrayana Iconography. All these relatively recent archaeological discoveries are today exhibited in a side room of the small National Museum in Male' along with other artifacts.
Buddhist remains have been also found in Minicoy Island, then part of the Maldive Kingdom, by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), in the latter half of the 20th century. Among these remains a Buddha head and stone foundations of a Vihara deserve special mention.
In the mid-1980s, the Maldivian government allowed the popular Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl, to excavate ancient sites. Despite the clear evidence that all the ancient ruins in Maldives are Buddhist, Heyerdahl claimed that early "sun-worshiping seafarers", called the "Redin", first settled on the islands. Keeping up with his sensationalist style, Heyerdahl argued that 'Redin' were people coming from somewhere else, whereas an ancient Maldivian poem (Fuvah Mulaku Rashoveshi) says: "Havitta uhe haudahau, Redin taneke hedi ihau". This poem gives us a clue about the name 'Redin'. According to Magieduruge Ibrahim Didi, a learned man from Fuvah Mulaku, it was merely the name which the converted Maldivians used to refer to their infidel (ghair dīn = 'redin') ancestors after the general conversion from Buddhism to Islam.
The importance of the Arabs as traders in the Indian Ocean by the 12th century may partly explain why the last Buddhist king of Maldives Dhovemi converted to Islam in the year 1153 (or 1193, as certain copper plate grants give a later date).
The king thereupon adopted the Muslim title and name (in Arabic) of Sultan (besides the old Divehi title of "Maha Radun" or "Ras Kilege" or "Rasgefānu") Muhammad ibn Abdullah, initiating a series of six Islamic dynasties consisting of eighty-four sultans and sultanas that lasted until 1932 when the sultanate became elective. The formal title of the Sultan up to 1965 was, "Sultan of Land and Sea, Lord of the twelve-thousand islands and Sultan of the Maldives" which came with the style "Highness".
The person traditionally deemed responsible for this conversion was a Sunni Muslim visitor named Abu al-Barakat Yusuf al-Barbari. His venerated tomb now stands on the grounds of Medhu Ziyaaraiy across the street from the Hukuru Mosque in the capital Malé. Built in 1656, this is the oldest mosque in Maldives.
Following the Islamic concept that before Islam there was the time of Jahiliya (ignorance), in the history books used by Maldivians the introduction of Islam at the end of the 12th century is considered the cornerstone of the country's history.
Compared to the other areas of South Asia, the conversion of the Maldives to Islam happened relatively late. Arab Traders had converted populations in the Malabar Coast since the 7th century, and the Arab invader Muhammad Bin Qāsim had converted large swathes of Sindh to Islam at about the same time. The Maldives remained a Buddhist kingdom for another five hundred years (perhaps the south-westernmost Buddhist country) until the conversion to Islam.
The document known as Dhanbidhū Lōmāfānu gives information about the suppression of Buddhism in the southern Haddhunmathi Atoll, which had been a major center of that religion. Monks were taken to Male and beheaded, The Satihirutalu (the chattravali or chattrayashti crowning a stupa) were broken to disfigure the numerous stupasm and the statues of Vairocana, the transcendent Buddha of the middle world region, were destroyed.
Arab interest in Maldives also was reflected in the residence there in the 1340s of Ibn Battutah. The well-known North African traveler wrote how a Moroccan, one "Abu al-Barakat Yusuf al-Barbari", was believed to have been responsible for spreading Islam in the islands, reportedly convincing the local king after having subdued Ranna Maari, a demon coming from the sea. Even though this report has been contested in later sources, it does explain some crucial aspects of Maldivian culture. For instance, historically Arabic has been the prime language of administration there, instead of the Persian and Urdu languages used in the nearby Muslim states. Another link to North Africa was the Maliki school of jurisprudence, used throughout most of North Africa, which was the official one in the Maldives until the 17th century.
Somali Muslim Abu al-Barakat Yusuf al-Barbari, also known as Aw Barkhadle, is traditionally credited for this conversion. According to the story told to Ibn Battutah, a mosque was built with the inscription: 'The Sultan Ahmad Shanurazah accepted Islam at the hand of Abu al-Barakat Yusuf al-Barbari.' Some scholars have suggested the possibility of Ibn Battuta misreading Maldive texts, and having a bias towards the North African, Maghrebi narrative of this Shaykh, instead of the East African origins account that was known as well at the time. Even when Ibn Battuta visited the islands, the governor of the island at that time was Abd Aziz Al Mogadishawi, a Somali
Scholars have posited another scenario where Abu al-Barakat Yusuf al-Barbari might have been a native of Barbera, a significant trading port on the northwestern coast of Somalia. "Barbara" or "Barbaroi" (Berbers), as the ancestors of the Somalis were referred to by medieval Arab and ancient Greek geographers, respectively. This is also seen when Ibn Batuta visited Mogadishu, he mentions that the Sultan at that time, "Abu Bakr ibn Shaikh Omar", was a Berber (Somali). According to scholars, Abu al-Barakat Yusuf al-Barbari was Yusuf bin Ahmad al-Kawneyn, a famous native Somali scholar known for establishing the Walashma dynasty of the Horn of Africa. After his conversion of the population of Dogor (now known as Aw Barkhadle), a town in Somalia, he is also credited to have been responsible for spreading Islam in the Maldivian islands, establishing the Hukuru Miskiy, and converting the Maldivian population to Islam. Ibn Batuta states the Maldivian king was converted by Abu al-Barakat Yusuf al-Barbari (Blessed Father of Somalia).
Another interpretation, held by the more reliable local historical chronicles, "Raadavalhi" and "Taarikh", is that Abu al-Barakat Yusuf al-Barbari was an Iranian from Tabriz called Yusuf Shamsud-din, also locally known as Tabrīzugefānu. In the Arabic script the words al-Barbari and al-Tabrizi are very much alike, owing to the fact that at the time, Arabic had several consonants that looked identical and could only be differentiated by overall context (this has since changed by addition of dots above or below letters to clarify pronunciation – For example, the letter "B" in modern Arabic has a dot below, whereas the letter "T" looks identical except there are two dots above it). The first reference to an Iranian origin dates to an 18th-century Persian text.
Inhabitants of the Middle East became interested in Maldives due to its strategic location. Middle Eastern seafarers had just begun to take over the Indian Ocean trade routes in the 10th century and found Maldives to be an important link in those routes. The Maldives was the first landfall for traders from Basra, sailing to Sri Lanka or Southeast Asia. Bengal was one of the principal trading partners of the Maldives. Trade involved mainly cowrie shells and coir fiber.
The Maldives had and abundant supply of cowrie shells, a form of currency that was widely used throughout Asia and parts of the East African coast since ancient times. Shell currency imported from the Maldives was used as legal tender in the Bengal Sultanate and Mughal Bengal, alongside gold and silver. The Maldives received rice in exchange for cowry shells. The Bengal-Maldives cowry shell trade was the largest shell currency trade network in history. In the Maldives, ships could take on fresh water, fruit and the delicious, basket-smoked red flesh of the black "bonito", a delicacy exported to Sindh, China and Yemen. The people of the archipelago were described as gentle, civilised and hospitable. They produced brass utensils as well as fine cotton textiles, exported in the form of sarongs and turban lengths. These local industries must have depended on imported raw materials.
The other essential product of the Maldives was "coir", the fibre of the dried coconut husk. Cured in pits, beaten, spun and then twisted into cordage and ropes, coir's salient quality is its resistance to saltwater. It stitched together and rigged the dhows that plied the Indian Ocean. Maldivian coir was exported to Sindh, China, Yemen, and the Persian Gulf.
"It is stronger than hemp", wrote Ibn Battuta, "and is used to sew together the planks of Sindhi and Yemeni dhows, for this sea abounds in reefs, and if the planks were fastened with iron nails, they would break into pieces when the vessel hit a rock. The coir gives the boat greater elasticity, so that it doesn't break up."
In 1558 the Portuguese established a small garrison with a "Viador" ("Viyazoru"), or overseer of a factory (trading post) in the Maldives, which they administered from their main colony in Goa. They tried to impose Christianity on the locals. Thus, fifteen years later, a local leader named Muhammad Thakurufaanu al-A'uẓam and his two brothers organized a popular revolt and drove the Portuguese out of Maldives. This event is now commemorated as National Day, and a small museum and memorial center honor the hero on his home island of Utheemu on North Thiladhummathi Atoll.
In the mid-17th century, the Dutch, who had replaced the Portuguese as the dominant power in Ceylon, established hegemony over Maldivian affairs without involving themselves directly in local matters, which were governed according to centuries-old Islamic customs.
The British expelled the Dutch from Ceylon in 1796 and included Maldives as a protected state.
Britain got entangled with the Maldives as a result of domestic disturbances which targeted the settler community of Bora merchants who were British subjects in the 1860s. Rivalry between two dominant families, the Athireege clan and the Kakaage clan was resolved with former winning the favour of the British authorities in Ceylon. The status of Maldives as a British protectorate was officially recorded in an 1887 agreement.
On 16 December 1887, the Sultan of the Maldives signed a contract with the British Governor of Ceylon turning the Maldives into a British protected state, thus giving up the islands' sovereignty in matters of foreign policy, but retaining internal self-government. The British government promised military protection and non-interference in local administration, which continued to be regulated by Muslim traditional institutions, in exchange for an annual tribute. The status of the islands was akin to other British protectorates in the Indian Ocean region, including Zanzibar and the Trucial States.
During the British era, which lasted until 1965, Maldives continued to be ruled under a succession of sultans. It was a period during which the Sultan's authority and powers were increasingly and decisively taken over by the Chief Minister, much to the chagrin of the British Governor-General who continued to deal with the ineffectual Sultan. Consequently, Britain encouraged the development of a constitutional monarchy, and the first Constitution was proclaimed in 1932. However, the new arrangements favoured neither the aging Sultan nor the wily Chief Minister, but rather a young crop of British-educated reformists. As a result, angry mobs were instigated against the Constitution, which was publicly torn up.
The Maldives were only marginally touched by the Second World War. The Italian auxiliary cruiser Ramb I was sunk off Addu Atoll in 1941.
After the death of Sultan Majeed Didi and his son, the members of the parliament elected Muhammad Amin Didi as the next person in line to succeed the sultan. But Didi refused to take up the throne. So, a referendum was held and Maldives became a republic, with Amin Didi as first elected President, having abolished the 812-year-old sultanate. While serving as prime minister during the 1940s, Didi had nationalized the fish export industry. As president he is remembered as a reformer of the education system and a promoter of women's rights. Yet, while he was in Ceylon for medical treatment, a revolution was brought by the people of Malé, headed by his deputy Velaanaagey Ibraahim Didi. When Amin Did returned he was confined to Dhoonidhoo Island. He escaped to Malé and tried to take control of Bandeyrige, but was beaten by an angry mob and died soon after.
After the fall of President Mohamed Amin Didi, a referendum was held and 98% of the people voted in favour of restoration of the monarchy, so the country was again declared a Sultanate. A new People's Majilis was elected, as the former had been dissolved after the end of the revolution. The members of the special majilis decided to take a secret vote to elect a sultan, and Prince Mohammed Fareed Didi was elected as the 84th Sultan in 1954. His first Prime minister was Ehgamugey Ibraahim Ali Didi (later Ibraahim Faamuladheyri Kilegefaan). On 11 December 1957, the prime minister was forced to resign and Velaanagey Ibrahim Nasir was elected as the new prime minister the following day.
Beginning in the 1950s, political history in Maldives was largely influenced by the British military presence in the islands. In 1954 the restoration of the sultanate perpetuated the rule of the past. Two years later, the United Kingdom obtained permission to reestablish its wartime RAF Gan airfield in the southernmost Addu Atoll, employing hundreds of locals. Maldives granted the British a 100-year lease on Gan that required them to pay £2,000 a year, as well as some 440,000 square metres on Hitaddu for radio installations. This served as a staging post for British military flights to the Far East and Australia, replacing RAF Mauripur in Pakistan which had been relinquished in 1956.
In 1957, however, the new prime minister, Ibrahim Nasir, called for a review of the agreement in the interest of shortening the lease and increasing the annual payment, and announced a new tax on boats. But Nasir was challenged in 1959 by a local secessionist movement in the three southernmost atolls that benefited economically from the British presence on Gan. This group cut ties with the Maldives government and formed an independent state, the United Suvadive Republic with Abdullah Afif as president and Hithadhoo as capital. The short-lived state (1959–63) had a combined population of 20,000 inhabitants scattered over Huvadu, Addu and Fua Mulaku. Afeef pleaded for support and recognition from Britain in the edition of 25 May 1959 of "The Times" of London
Instead the initial British measure of lukewarm support for the small breakaway nation was withdrawn in 1961, when the British signed a treaty with the Maldive Islands without involving Afeef. Following that treaty the Suvadives had to endure an economic embargo. In 1962 Nasir sent gunboats from Malé with government police on board to eliminate elements opposed to his rule. One year later the Suvadive republic was scrapped and Abdullah Afif went into exile to the Seychelles, where he died in 1993.
Meanwhile, in 1960 the Maldives had allowed the United Kingdom to continue to use both the Gan and the Hitaddu facilities for a thirty-year period, with the payment of £750,000 over the period of 1960 to 1965 for the purpose of Maldives' economic development.
The base was closed in 1976 as part of the larger British withdrawal of permanently stationed forces 'East of Suez' initiated by Labour government of Harold Wilson.
On 26 July 1965, Maldives gained independence under an agreement signed with United Kingdom. The British government retained the use of the Gan and Hitaddu facilities. In a national referendum in March 1968, Maldivians abolished the sultanate and established a republic.
In line with the broader British policy of decolonisation on 26 July 1965 an agreement was signed on behalf of His Majesty the Sultan by Ibrahim Nasir Rannabandeyri Kilegefan, Prime Minister, and on behalf of Her Majesty The Queen by Sir Michael Walker, British Ambassador designate to the Maldive Islands, which ended the British responsibility for the defence and external affairs of the Maldives. The islands thus achieved full political independence, with the ceremony taking place at the British High Commissioner's Residence in Colombo. After this, the sultanate continued for another three years under Muhammad Fareed Didi, who declared himself King rather than Sultan.
On 15 November 1967, a vote was taken in parliament to decide whether the Maldives should continue as a constitutional monarchy or become a republic. Of the 44 members of parliament, forty voted in favour of a republic. On 15 March 1968, a national referendum was held on the question, and 81.23% of those taking part voted in favour of establishing a republic. The republic was declared on 11 November 1968, thus ending the 853-year-old monarchy, which was replaced by a republic under the presidency of Ibrahim Nasir, the former prime minister. As the King had held little real power, this was seen as a cosmetic change and required few alterations in the structures of government.
The Second Republic was proclaimed in November 1968 under the presidency of Ibrahim Nasir, who had increasingly dominated the political scene. Under the new constitution, Nasir was elected indirectly to a four-year presidential term by the Majlis (legislature) and his candidacy later ratified by referendum. He appointed Ahmed Zaki as the new prime minister.
In 1973 Nasir was elected to a second term under the constitution as amended in 1972, which extended the presidential term to five years and which also provided for the election of the prime minister by the Majlis. In March 1975, newly elected prime minister Zaki was arrested in a bloodless coup and was banished to a remote atoll. Observers suggested that Zaki was becoming too popular and hence posed a threat to the Nasir faction.
During the 1970s, the economic situation in Maldives suffered a setback when the Sri Lankan market for Maldives' main export of dried fish collapsed. Adding to the problems was the British decision in 1975 to close its airfield on Gan. A steep commercial decline followed the evacuation of Gan in March 1976. As a result, the popularity of Nasir's government suffered. Maldives's 20-year period of authoritarian rule under Nasir abruptly ended in 1978 when he fled to Singapore. A subsequent investigation claimed that he had absconded with millions of dollars from the state treasury. However, there has been no evidence so far and as a result it was believed that this was a propaganda act of the new government to get popularity and support among the citizens.
Nasir is widely credited with modernising the long-isolated and nearly unknown Maldives and opening them up to the rest of the world, including by building the first international airport (Malé International Airport, 1966) and bringing the Maldives to United Nations membership. He laid the foundations of the nation by modernising the fisheries industry with mechanized vessels and starting the tourism industry – the two prime drivers of today's Maldivian economy.
He was credited with many other improvements such as introducing an English-based modern curriculum to government-run schools and granting vote to Maldivian women in 1964. He brought television and radio to the country with formation of "Television Maldives" and "Radio Maldives" for broadcasting radio signals nationwide. He abolished "Vaaru", a tax on the people living on islands outside Malé.
Tourism in the Maldives began to be developed by the beginning of the 1970s. The first resort in the Maldives was Kurumba Maldives which welcomed the first guests on 3 October 1972. The first accurate census was held in December 1977 and showed 142,832 persons residing in Maldives.
When Nasir relinquished power Maldives was debt-free and the national shipping line with more than 40 ships remained a source of national pride.
Nasir was criticized for his authoritarian methods against opponents and for his iron-fisted methods in handling an insurrection by the Addu islanders who formed a short-lived breakaway government – United Suvadives Republic – with closer ties to the British.
Nasir's hasty introduction of the Latin alphabet (Malé Latin) in 1976 instead of local Thaana script – reportedly to allow for the use of telex machines in the local administration – was widely criticised. Clarence Maloney, a Maldives-based U.S. anthropologist, lamented the inconsistencies of the "Dhivehi Latin" which ignored all previous linguistic research on the Maldivian language and did not follow the modern Standard Indic transliteration. At the time of the romanization every island's officials were required to use only one script and they became illiterate overnight. Officials were relieved when the Tāna script was reinstated by President Maumoon shortly after he took power in 1978. However, Malé Latin continues to be widely used.
As Ibrahim Nasir's second term was coming to an end, he decided not to seek re-election and, in June 1978, the Majlis was called upon to nominate a presidential candidate. Nasir received 45 votes (despite his stated intention not to seek re-election), with the remaining 3 votes for Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, a former university lecturer and Maldivian ambassador to the United Nations. Another ballot was called on 16 June. Maumoon received 27 votes, allowing his name to be put forward as the sole candidate. Five months later, he was elected the new President of the Maldives, with 92.96% of the votes (he would be later re-elected five times as the sole candidate). The peaceful election was seen as ushering in a period of political stability and economic development in view of Maumoon's priority to develop the poorer islands. In 1978 Maldives joined the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Tourism also gained in importance to the local economy, reaching more than 120,000 visitors in 1985. The local populace appeared to benefit from increased tourism and the corresponding increase in foreign contacts involving various development projects.
There were three attempts by Nasir supporters and business interests to overthrow Maumoon's government during the 1980s – in 1980, 1983 and 1988.
Whereas the 1980 and 1983 coup attempts against Maumoon's presidency were not considered serious, the third coup attempt in November 1988 alarmed the international community, as about 80 armed mercenaries of the PLOTE Tamil militant group landed on Malé before dawn aboard speedboats and succeeded in controlling the capital city and many government offices. This attempted coup against Maumoon's rule was toppled by Indian military intervention ("Operation Cactus") after help was requested by Maumoon. Nineteen people reportedly died in the fighting, and several taken hostage also died. Mercenaries, and later also the mastermind of the attempted coup, were tried and sentenced to death, later commuted to life in prison. Some were later pardoned.
Despite coup attempts, Maumoon served three more presidential terms. In the 1983, 1988, and 1993 elections, Maumoon received more than 90% of the vote. Although the government did not allow any legal opposition, Maumoon was opposed in the early 1990s by the growth of Islamist radicalisation and by some powerful local business leaders.
Maumoon's tenure was marked by several allegations of corruption as well as allegations of autocratic rule, human rights abuses and corruption.
Maumoon's opponents and international human rights groups had accused him of employing terror tactics against dissidents, such as arbitrary arrests, detention without trial, employing torture, forced confessions, and politically motivated killings.
During the later part of Maumoon's rule, independent political movements emerged in Maldives, which challenged the then-ruling Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (Maldivian People's Party, MPP) and demanded democratic reform.
Since 2003, following the death in custody of a prisoner, Naseem, the Maldives experienced several anti-government demonstrations calling for political reforms, more freedoms, and an end to torture and oppression.
The dissident journalist Mohamed Nasheed rose to challenge the autocratic rule of Maumoon. Nasheed was imprisoned a total of 16 times under Maumoon's rule. Persisting in his activism, he founded the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) in 2003 while in exile. His activism, as well as civil unrest that year, pressured Maumoon into allowing for gradual political reforms.
Violent protests broke out in Malé on 20 September 2003 after Evan Naseem, a prisoner, was killed in Maafushi Prison, after the most brutal torture, by prison staff. An attempt to cover up the death was foiled when the mother of the dead man discovered the marks of torture on his body and made the knowledge public, therefore triggering the riots. A subsequent disturbance at the prison resulted in three deaths when police guards at the prison opened fire on unarmed inmates. Several government buildings were set on fire during the riots. As a result of pressure from reformists, the junior prison guards responsible for Naseem's death were subsequently tried, convicted and sentenced in 2005 in what was believed to be a show trial that avoided the senior officers involved being investigated. The report of an inquiry into the prison shootings was heavily censored by the Government, citing "national security" grounds. Pro-reformists claim this was in order to cover-up the chain of authority and circumstances that led to the killings.
There were fresh protests in the capital city of Maldives, Malé on 13 August 2004, (Black Friday), which appear to have begun as a demand for the release of four political activists from detention. Beginning on the evening of 12 August 2004, up to 5,000 demonstrators got involved. This unplanned and unorganized demonstration was the largest such protest in the country's history. Protesters initially demanding the freeing of the pro-reformists arrested on the afternoon of 12 August 2004. As the protest continued to grow, people demanded the resignation of president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who had been in power since 1978.
What started as a peaceful demonstration ended after 22 hours, as the country's darkest day in recent history. Several people were severely injured as personnel from the Maldivian National Security Service (NSS) – later Maldivian National Defence Force – used riot batons and teargas on unarmed civilians.
After two police officers were reportedly stabbed, allegedly by government agents provocateurs, President Maumoon declared a State of Emergency and suppressed the demonstration, suspending all human rights guaranteed under the Constitution, banning demonstrations and the expression of views critical of the government. At least 250 pro-reform protesters were arrested. As part of the state of emergency, and to prevent independent reporting of events, the government shut off Internet access and some mobile telephony services to Maldives on 13 and 14 August 2004.
As a result of these activities, political parties were eventually allowed in June 2005. The main parties registered in Maldives are: the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), the Dhivehi Raiyyithunge Party (DRP), the Islamic Democratic Party (IDP) and the Adhaalath Party, also known as the Adhaalath Party. The first party to register was the MDP headed by popular opposition figures such as Mohamed Nasheed (Anni) and Mohamed Latheef (Gogo). The next was the Dhivehi Raiyyithunge Party (DRP) headed by then-President Maumoon.
New civil unrest broke out in Malé, Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll and Addu Atoll of the Maldives on 12 August 2005 which led to events that supported the democratic reform of the country. This unrest was provoked by the arrest of Mohamed Nasheed – an open critic of the president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom – and the subsequent demolition of the "Dhunfini tent", used by the members of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) for their gatherings. Supporters of MDP were quick to demonstrate. They started calling for the resignation of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, soon after Nasheed's arrest. Several arrests were made on the first night followed by the demolition of the Dhunfini tent. The demolition complicated the situation further provoking the unrest. The unrest grew violent on the third night, on 14 August 2005, due to the methods used in the attempts by the authority to stop the demonstration.
The unrest continued intermittently for three nights, from 12 to 14 August 2005. By 15 August 2005, the uprising was controlled with the presence of heavy security around Malé. Almost a fourth of the city had to be cordoned off during the unrest.
On 26 December 2004, following the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, the Maldives were devastated by a tsunami. Only nine islands were reported to have escaped any flooding, while fifty-seven islands faced serious damage to critical infrastructure, fourteen islands had to be totally evacuated, and six islands were destroyed. A further twenty-one resort islands were forced to close because of serious damage. The total damage was estimated at more than US$400 million, or some 62% of the GDP. 102 Maldivians and 6 foreigners reportedly died in the tsunami. The destructive impact of the waves on the low-lying islands was mitigated by the fact there was no continental shelf or land mass upon which the waves could gain height. The tallest waves were reported to be high.
The protest movements brought about significant change in political structure. A new Constitution was ratified in August 2008, paving the way for the country's first multi-party presidential election two months later.
Standing as the DRP candidate, Maumoon lost in the election's second round, in which he received 45.75% of the vote against 54.25% for his opponents, MDP's Presidential Candidate Mohamed Nasheed accordingly succeeded Maumoon as President on 11 November 2008, with Gaumee Itthihaad's Candidate Mohammed Waheed Hassan in the new post of Vice President. The 2009 parliamentary election saw the Maldivian Democratic Party of President Nasheed receive the most votes with 30.81%, gaining 26 seats, although Maumoon's MPP, with 24.62% of the vote, received the most seats (28).
The government of President Mohamed Nasheed faced many challenges, including the huge debt left by the previous government, the economic downturn following the 2004 tsunami, overspending (by means of overprinting of local currency rufiyaa) during his regime, unemployment, corruption, and increasing drug use.
Taxation on goods was imposed for the first time in the country, and import duties were reduced in many goods and services. Social welfare benefits were given to those above 65 years of age, single parents, and those with special needs. On 10 November 2008, Nasheed announced an intent to create a sovereign wealth fund with money earned from tourism that could be used to purchase land elsewhere for the Maldives people to relocate should rising sea levels due to climate change inundate the country. The government reportedly considered locations in Sri Lanka and India due to cultural and climate similarities, and as far away as Australia.
An October 2009 cabinet meeting was held underwater (ministers wore scuba gear and communicated with hand signals) to publicise to the wider world the threat of global warming on the low-lying islands of the Maldives.
A series of peaceful protests that broke out in the Maldives on 1 May 2011. They would continue, eventually escalating into the resignation of President Mohamed Nasheed in disputed circumstances in February 2012.
Demonstrators were protesting what they considered the government's mismanagement of the economy and were calling for the ouster of President Mohamed Nasheed. The main political opposition party in the country, the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (Maldivian People's Party) led by former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom accused President Nasheed of "talking about democracy but not putting it into practice."
The primary cause for the protests was rising commodity prices and a poor economic situation in the country.
Nasheed resigned on 7 February 2012 following weeks of protests after he ordered the military to arrest Abdulla Mohamed, the Chief Justice of the Criminal Court, on 16 January. Maldives police joined the protesters after refusing to use force on them and took over the state-owned television station forcibly switching the broadcast opposition party leader Maumoon Abdul Gayoom's call for people to come out to protest. The Maldives Army then clashed with police and other protesters who were with the police. All this time no one of the protester tried to invade any security facility including headquarters of MNDF. The Chief Justice was released from detention after Nasheed resigned from his post.
Vice President Mohammed Waheed Hassan Manik was sworn as the new president of Maldives. Former President Nasheed's supporters clashed with the security personnel during a rally on 12 July 2012, seeking ouster of President Waheed.
Nasheed stated the following day that he was forced out of office at gunpoint, while Waheed supporters maintained that the transfer of power was voluntary and constitutional.
A later British Commonwealth meeting concluded that it could not "determine conclusively the constitutionality of the resignation of President Nasheed", but called for an international investigation. The Maldives' National Commission of Inquiry, appointed to investigate the matter, found that there was no evidence to support Nasheed's version of events.
Many countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, were quick to abandon Nasheed, instead endorsing his successor. (The United States backtracked in late 2012 in response to widespread criticism.) On 23 February 2012, the Commonwealth suspended the Maldives from its democracy and human rights watchdog while the ousting was being investigated, and backed Nasheed's call for elections before the end of 2012.
On 8 October, Nasheed was arrested after failing to appear in court to face charges that he ordered the illegal arrest of a judge while in office. However, his supporters claim that this detention was politically motivated in order to prevent him from campaigning for the 2013 presidential elections.
In March 2013 the former president Nasheed was convicted under the country's terrorism laws for ordering the arrest of an allegedly corrupt judge in 2012 and jailed for 13 years. Maldives' international partners – including the EU, US, UK and the United Nations – have said his rushed trial was seriously flawed following a UN panel ruling in the former president's favour. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has called for his immediate release. Nasheed appealed also to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
At the time Nasheed was jailed, President Mohammed Waheed Hassan announced a presidential election would be held in 2013.
The elections in late 2013 were highly contested. Former president Mohammed Nasheed won the most votes in the first round. Contrary to the assessment of international election observers, the Supreme Court cited irregularities and annulled it. In the end, the opposition combined to gain a majority. Abdulla Yameen, half-brother of the former president Maumoon, assumed the presidency.
Yameen implemented a foreign policy shift towards increased engagement with China, establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries. Yameen employed Islam as a tool of identity politics, framing religious mobilisation as the solution to perceived Western attempts to undermine Maldivian national sovereignty. Yameen's policy of connecting Islam with anti-Western rhetoric represented a new development.
On 28 September 2015 there was an assassination attempt on President Abdulla Yameen as he was returning from Saudi Arabia after the hajj pilgrimage. As his speedboat was docking at Male there was an explosion on board. Amid screams, the right door of the boat fell on the jetty and there was heavy smoke. Three people were injured, including his wife, but the President managed to escape unhurt.
In a probe of the explosion targeting president, on 24 October 2015 Maldives vice president Ahmed Adeeb was arrested at the airport upon his return from a conference in China. 17 of Adheeb's supporters were also arrested for "public order offences". The government instituted a broader crackdown against political dissent.
On 4 November 2015, President Abdulla Yameen declared a 30-day state of emergency ahead of a planned anti-government rally.
The next day, as per the "State of Emergency" bill made by the President, the people's Majlis decided to rush the process for the removal of Vice president Ahmed Adeeb by a no confidence vote that was submitted by PPM Parliament than the originally intended period. As a result, the Majlis passed the "no confidence vote" with a majority of 61 members favouring it, removing Adeeb from the post of Vice President in the process.
On 10 November 2015, President Yameen revoked the "State of Emergency" citing that no imminent threats remained in the country.
Though the popular image of the Maldives is that of a holiday paradise, its radicalised youths are enlisting in significant numbers to fight for Islamic State militants in the Middle East.
In the late 1990s Wahhabism challenged more traditional moderate practices. After the 2004 tsunami, Saudi-funded preachers gained influence. Within a short period of a decade fundamentalist practices dominated the culture. The Guardian estimates that 50–100 fighters have joined ISIS and al Qaeda from the Maldives. The Financial Times puts the number at 200. Radicalization often happens in jail where the "only thing to read is the Qur'an or religious literature. There are also lots of older militants and young guys look up to them."
Ibrahim Mohamed Solih was selected as the new presidential candidate for the coalition of opposition parties in the 2018 election, when former president Mohamed Nasheed changed his mind about running.
Solih assumed office on 17 November 2018, when the five-year term of Abdulla Yameen expired. Solih became the 7th President of the Maldives and the country's third democratically elected president.
On 19 November, Solih announced that the Maldives is to return to the Commonwealth of Nations, a decision recommended by his Cabinet, considering that the Maldives was a Commonwealth republic from 1982 to 2016.
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Demographics of the Maldives
This article is about the demographic features of the population of the Maldives, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
Structure of the population (21.03.2006) (Census) :
Structure of the population (01.07.2013) (Estimates) :
Fertility Rate (TFR) (Wanted Fertility Rate) and CBR (Crude Birth Rate):
The total fertility rate differs greatly from as low as 2.05 children per woman in Malé to a maximum of 3.88 children in Faafu.
Source: "UN World Population Prospects"
The largest ethnic group is Dhivehin, native to the historic region of the Maldive Islands comprising today's Republic of Maldives and the island of Minicoy in Union territory of Lakshadweep, India. They share the same culture and speak the Dhivehi language. They are principally an Indo-Aryan people, closely related to the Sinhalese and having traces of Middle Eastern, South Asian, Austronesian and African genes in the population.
In the past there was also a small Tamil population known as the Giraavaru people. This group have now been almost completely absorbed into the larger Maldivian society but were once native to the island of Giraavaru (Kaafu Atoll). This island was evacuated in 1968 due to heavy erosion of the island.
Dhivehi, an Indo-Aryan language closely related to the Sinhala language of Sri Lanka, and written in a specialized Arabic script (Thaana), is the official language and is spoken by virtually the whole population. English is also spoken as a second language by many.
Sunni Islam is the state religion. Historically, the Maldives were converted to Islam from Buddhism in the 12th century.
Under the 2008 constitution Islam is the official religion of the entire population, as adherence to it is required for citizenship.
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.
301,475 (July 2000 est.) - 369,031 (July 2007 est.)
The average Maldivian citizen has 4.7 years of education
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Politics of the Maldives
The politics of the Maldives, as per the reports, take place in the framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President is the Head of Government. Executive power is exercised by the government. The President heads the executive branch and appoints the Cabinet; Like many presidential democracies, each member of the cabinet need to be approved by the Parliament. The President, along with their pick for Vice President, are directly elected by the denizens to a five-year term by a secret ballot. Once in office, they could be re-elected to second 5-year term, which is the limit allowed by the Constitution. The current President of the Maldives is Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, who was sworn into office on July 13, 2018 when his predecessor, Abdulla Yameen, lost the 2018 presidential election. Yameen followed his own predecessor Mohamed Nasheed's forced resignation in a coup led by the police. Nasheed reportedly resigned involuntarily to forestall an escalation of violence, and was placed in jail, before being forced into exile, from which he eventually returned.
The unicameral Majlis of the Maldives is composed of 87 members serving a five-year term. The total number of the members representing each constituency depends on the total population of that constituency. The last parliamentary election was held on 6 April 2019.
The Maldivian legal system is derived mainly from the traditional Islamic law. There is a Supreme Court with 5 judges including the Chief Justice. The Chief Justice is appointed by the President, with the recommendation of the Judicial Service Commission. Parliament is required to approve the appointment before he assumes office. Excluding the Supreme Court, there also exists the High Court (two branches), a Criminal Court, Civil Court, Family Court, Juvenile Court, Drug Court and many Lower Courts in each Atoll/Island. An Attorney General is part of the Cabinet and also needs the approval of Parliament before taking office.
Under the new 2008 constitution, the function of Local Government is devolved to an Atoll Council to administer each atoll and an Island Council to administer each inhabited island. Island councillors are elected by the people of each island, and the Atoll Councillors are in turn elected by the Island Councillors.
A 1968 referendum approved a constitution making Maldives a republic with executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. The constitution was amended in 1970, 1972, 1975, and 1997 and again in 2008.
Ibrahim Nasir, Prime Minister under the pre-1968 sultanate, became President and held office from 1968 to 1978. He was succeeded by Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who was elected President in 1978 and re-elected in 1983, 1988, 1993, 1998, and 2003. At the end of his presidency in 2008, he was the longest serving leader in Asia.
Since 2003, following the death in custody of a prisoner, Naseem, the Maldives experienced several anti-government demonstrations calling for political reforms, more freedoms, and an end to torture and oppression. As a result of these activities, political parties were eventually allowed in June 2005. The main parties registered in Maldives are: the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), the Dhivehi Raiyyithunge Party (DRP), the Islamic Democratic Party (IDP) and the Adhaalath Party, also known as the Adhaalath Party. The first party to register was the MDP headed by popular opposition figures such as Mohamed Nasheed (Anni) and Mohamed Latheef (Gogo). The next was the Dhivehi Raiyyithunge Party (DRP) headed by then-President Gayoom.
A new Constitution was ratified in August 2008, paving the way for the country's first multi-party presidential election two months later.
The Maldives have scored poorly on some indices of freedom. The "Freedom in the World" index, a measure of political rights and civil liberties published by Freedom House, judged Maldives as "not free" until May 1, 2009, when it was raised to "partly free". The "Worldwide Press Freedom Index", published by Reporters Without Borders, ranks Maldives 98th out of 180 in terms of press freedom as of 2019.
In September 2018, a presidential election was held, during which Ibrahim Mohamed Solih was elected to the post of president, with 58.38% of the public vote. He stood as a member of a joint opposition to Yameen Abdul Gayoom's regime, which had been condemned internationally for shutting down free speech, and violating human rights.
The Majlis of the Maldives has 87 members elected by the people under first-past-the-post voting.
On a national level, Maldives elects a head of state the president and a legislature. The president is elected for a five-year term by the people since 2008. Until 2005 (after the election), no legal parties existed. The results of the most recent legislative elections held in 2019 are:
The Maldivian parliament voted unanimously for the creation of a multiparty system on June 2, 2005. Prior to June 2005, the Maldivian political system was based on the election of individuals, rather than the more common system of election according to party platform. In June 2005, as part of an ongoing programme of democratic reform, new regulations were promulgated to formally recognised political parties within the framework of the electoral system.
The Maldivian Democratic Party was already active. New parties created within a few years after this included those such as the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party, the Jumhooree Party, and the Adhaalath Party.
On October 8, 2008, the country held its first ever multi-party presidential election.
The legal system is based on Islamic law with admixtures of English common law primarily in commercial matters. Maldives has not accepted compulsory International Court of Justice jurisdiction.
20 atolls ("atholhu", singular and plural): Alif Alif, Alif Dhaal, Baa, Dhaalu, Faafu, Gaafu Alifu, Gaafu Dhaalu, Gnaviyani, Haa Alifu, Haa Dhaalu, Laamu, Lhaviyani, Kaafu, Meemu, Noonu, Raa, Seenu, Shaviyani, Thaa, Vaavu, and one first-order administrative city (Malé).
The Maldives is a member of many international organisations, some of which include:
The AsDB, Commonwealth of Nations, CP, ESCAP, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, IDA, IFAD, IFC, International Monetary Fund, IMO, Intelsat (nonsignatory user), Interpol, IOC, IsDB, ITU, NAM, OIC, OPCW, SAARC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, World Health Organization, WCO, WIPO, WMO, and the WTO.
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Economy of the Maldives
In ancient times the Maldives were renowned for cowries, coir rope, dried tuna fish (Maldive fish), ambergris ("maavaharu") and coco de mer ("tavakkaashi"). Local and foreign trading ships used to load these products in the Maldives and bring them abroad.
Nowadays, the mixed economy of the Maldives is based on the principal activities of tourism, fishing and shipping.
Tourism is the largest industry in the Maldives, accounting for 28% of GDP and more than 60% of the Maldives' foreign exchange receipts. It powered the current GDP per capita to expand 265% in the 1980s and a further 115% in the 1990s. Over 90% of government tax revenue flows in from import duties and tourism-related taxes.
Fishing is the second leading sector in the Maldives. The economic reform program by the government in 1989 lifted import quotas and opened some exports to the private sector. Subsequently, it has liberalized regulations to allow more foreign investment.
Agriculture and manufacturing play a minor role in the economy, constrained by the limited availability of cultivable land and shortage of domestic labour. Most staple foods are imported.
Industry in the Maldives consists mainly of garment production, boat building, and handicrafts. It accounts for around 18% of GDP. Maldivian authorities are concerned about the impact of erosion and possible global warming in the low-lying country.
Among the 1,190 islands in the Maldives, only 198 are inhabited. The population is scattered throughout the country, and the greatest concentration is on the capital island, Malé. Limitations on potable water and arable land, plus the added difficulty of congestion are some of the problems faced by households in Malé.
Development of the infrastructure in the Maldives is mainly dependent on the tourism industry and its complementary tertiary sectors, transport, distribution, real estate, construction, and government. Taxes on the tourist industry have been plowed into infrastructure and it is used to improve technology in the agricultural sector.
This is a chart of trend of gross domestic product of Maldives at market prices estimated by the International Monetary Fund with figures in millions of rufiyaa.
For purchasing power parity comparisons, the US dollar is exchanged at 12.85 rufiyaa only. Mean wages were $4.15 per man-hour in 2009.
The Maldives has experienced relatively low inflation throughout the recent years. Real GDP growth averaged about 10% in the 1980s. It expanded by an exceptional 16.2% in 1990, declined to 4% in 1993, and, over the 1995–2004 decade, real GDP growth averaged just over 7.5% per year. In 2005, as a result of the tsunami, the GDP contracted by about 5.5%; however, the economy rebounded in 2006 with a 13% increase.
The Maldives has been running a merchandise trade deficit in the range of $200 to $260 million since 1997. The trade deficit declined to $233 million in 2000 from $262 million in 1999. In 2004 it was $444 million.
International shipping to and from the Maldives is mainly operated by the private sector with only a small fraction of the tonnage carried on vessels operated by the national carrier, Maldives Shipping Management Ltd.
Over the years, Maldives has received economic assistance from multilateral development organizations, including the United Nations Development Programme, Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank. Individual donors, including Japan, India, Europe, Australia, Arab countries (such as Islamic Development Bank and the Kuwait Fund) also have contributed. See: Economic Aid to Maldives
In 1956, a bilateral agreement gave United Kingdom access to Gan in Addu Atoll in the far south, to establish an air facility in Gan in return for British aid. However, the agreement ended in 1976, shortly after the closing of the Gan air station.
The following table shows the main economic indicators in 1980–2017.
As of 2007, the Maldives has successfully promoted its natural assets for tourism. The beautiful, unpolluted beaches on small coral islands, blue waters and sunsets attract tourists worldwide, bringing in about $325 million a year. Tourism and other services in the tertiary sector contributed 33% to the GDP in 2000.
Since the establishment of the first resort in 1972, over 84 islands have been developed as tourist resorts, with a total capacity of some 16,000 beds. The number of tourists (mainly from Europe) visiting the Maldives increased from 1,100 in 1972 to 280,000 in 1994. In 2000, tourist arrivals exceeded 466,000. The average occupancy rate is 68%, with the average number of tourists staying for 8 days and spending about $755.
It is recorded that over 1 million tourists visited the islands in 2014
This sector employs about 20% of the labour force and contributes 3% of GDP. All fishing is done by line as the use of nets is illegal. Production in the fishing sector, was approximately 119,000 metric tons in 2000, most of which were skipjack tuna. About 50% of fish is exported, especially to Sri Lanka, Germany, UK, Thailand, Japan, and Singapore. Almost 42% of fish exports consist of dried or canned fish, and another 31% is frozen and the remaining 10% is exported as fresh fish. Total exports of fish reached about $40 million in 2000. The fishing fleet consists of some 1,140 small, flat-bottomed boats (dhonis). Since the dhonis have shifted from sailing boats to outboard motors, the annual tuna catch per fisherman has risen from 1.4 metric tons in 1983 to 15.2 in 2002.
Due to the availability of poor soil and scarceness of arable land in the islands, agriculture is limited to only a few subsistence crops, such as coconut, banana, breadfruit, papayas, mangoes, taro, betel, chilies, sweet potatoes, and onions. Agriculture contributes about 6% of GDP. Maldivians mostly use 'hydroponics' to increase food resources throughout the country. The most hydroponic-used islands are Maafahi, Haa Alif Atoll and Thoddoo, Haa Alif Atoll.
The industrial sector provides only about 7% of GDP. Traditional industry consists of boat building and handicrafts, while modern industry is limited to a few tuna canneries, five garment factories, a bottling plant, and a few enterprises in the capital producing PVC pipe, soap, furniture, and food products. There are no patent laws in the Maldives.
The banking industry dominates the small financial sector of the Maldives. The country's seven banks are regulated by the Maldives Monetary Authority. The Maldives has no income, sales, property, or capital-gains taxes, and has been considered to have the simplest tax code in the world. The Tax Justice Network gave the Maldives a "secrecy score" of 92 on its 2011 Financial Secrecy Index - the highest score in that category of any actively-ranked country. However, the Maldives' minor market share put it near the bottom of the overall weighted lists.
Beginning in the 1990s, the Port of Male received over £10 million in loans from the Asian Development Bank designated for infrastructure upgraded. The ADB notes that from 1991 to 2011, due to the loans, the ports annual throughput in freight tons equaled 273,000. By 2011 that number reached 1 million. The ADB also provided training for port authority staff to increase efficiency. ADB and the Government of Maldives, in a joint report address ship turn-around, "What used to take about 10 days in 1991 was achieved in 3.8 days by 1997, and about 2.6 days by 2014".
Traditional economic activities such as mat weaving, jewelry making, thatch making and lacquer work are also found in Maldives.
There is growing concern towards the coral reef and marine life due to coral mining (used for building and jewelry making), sand dredging, solid waste pollution and oil spills from boats. Mining of sand and coral has destroyed the natural coral reef that once protected several important islands, now making them highly susceptible to the erosive effects of the sea. The destruction of large coral beds due to heat is also a growing concern.
In April 1987, high tides swept over the Maldives, inundating much of Malé and nearby islands which prompted Maldivian authorities to take global climatic changes seriously. An INQUA research in 2003 found that actual sea levels in the Maldives had dropped in the 1970s and forecasts little change in the next century. There is also concern over the questionable shark fishing practices in place in the island. Shark fishing is forbidden by law, but these laws are not enforced. The population of sharks has sharply decreased in recent years.
The Asian brown cloud hovering in the atmosphere over the northern Indian Ocean is also another concern. Studies show that decreased sunshine and increased acid rain source from this cloud.
While electricity in the Maldives has historically come entirely from diesel generators, solar power has been increasingly adopted to avoid high fuel costs. The resort on Dhiddhoofinolhu claims to have the world's largest oceanic floating solar plant, with 678 kW enough to supply peak demand. The country's Environment Ministry has deployed solar–battery–diesel hybrid systems across the outer islands to reduce subsidies for imported diesel and promote low-carbon energy independence.
The government expenditure for education was 18% of the budget in 1999. Both public and private schools have made remarkable progress in the last decade. Further, there are private institutions that are staffed by community-paid teachers without formal training who provide basic numeracy and literacy skills in addition to religious knowledge.
The modern schools are run by both the government and private sector, providing primary and secondary education simultaneously. As the modern English-medium school system expands, the traditional system is gradually being upgraded. By early 1998, more than 30 islands were equipped to provide education for grades, 8, 9, and 10. Some 164 islands provided education up to grade 5, 6, or 7. In Malé is the only school for grades 11 and 12, with a school in the southern most island of Gan scheduled to offer the final 2 years starting in 2002.
Seven post-secondary technical training institutes provide opportunities for youth to gain skills that are in demand. The World Bank has already committed $17 million for education development in 2000-04, and plans to commit further $15 million for human development and distance learning during this period. Over 2001-03, the ADB planned to support post-secondary education development in Maldives
Maldives has successfully achieved their Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the proportion of people living under the poverty line to a mere 1% as of 2011. Starvation is non-existent, HIV rates have fallen and malaria has been eradicated. Despite these accomplishments and progressive economic growth, developmental issues remain. In particular, the country needs to address income and gender disparities. Development in Maldives has occurred predominantly in the capital Malé; islands outside the capital continue to encounter high poverty vulnerability, lower per-capita income, lower employment and limited access to social services. A country-wide household income survey in 1997-1998 showed that the average income in the capital Malé was 75% higher than in surrounding islands. Maldives's Gini co-efficient stands at 0.41.
The factors that have led to Maldivians falling into or remaining in poverty are:
The difficulty of accessing social services and infrastructure in the outer atolls has meant that geography is a key reason for poverty and income disparity in Maldives. In islands far from the capital, there tends to be lack of production, inadequate use of fishery resources, low value chain development and insufficient credit for small-scale producers and entrepreneurs. The scarcity of land and water, the underdeveloped farming practices and absence of support services in atolls has meant low production and thus low incomes in these regions.
Maldives also faces gender inequality. In a nationwide survey in 2007, it was established that one in every three Maldivian women between the ages of 15-39 has been a victim of domestic violence. The labour force participation rate of women decreased from 60% in 1978 to 37% in 2005. Maldives faces skill shortages and human resource development constraints causing fewer women to be employed.
The government has recognized these issues of income and gender disparities and with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Maldives has implemented policies that directly address these issues. In 2011, President Nasheed said, “The most important facility for a country’s development is its people… and since women are half of the population in any country, for a certainty their full participation will speed up the pace of development.”
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Telecommunications in the Maldives
Telecommunications in the Maldives is under the control and supervision of the Communications Authority of Maldives (CAM). The Maldives is served by three telecommunications operators, Dhiraagu, Ooredoo Maldives and Raajjé Online.
Mobile network operators (MNOs): 2, Dhiraagu and Ooredoo Maldives (2020)
Telephones - Fixedline's in use:
21,000 (1999)
Telephones - Mobile Cellular:
344,000 (2007)
Telephone system:
"domestic:" interatoll communication through microwave links; all inhabited islands are connected with telephone and fax service.
"international:" satellite earth station - 3 Intelsat (Indian Ocean)
Radio broadcast stations:
AM 1, FM 5, shortwave 1 (2008)
Radios:
35,000 (1999)
Television broadcast stations:
9 (2009)
Televisions:
10,000 (1999)
Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
3, Dhiraagu, Ooredoo Maldives and Raajjé Online (2020)
Internet users:
20,000 (2008)
Country code (Top level domain): .mv
MV Domain registrar: Dhiraagu
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Transport in the Maldives
Transport in the Maldives includes, road, water and air.
All roads in the capital city of Malé are paved with concrete cobblestones. Many of the roads in Addu city are paved with tarmac. A small highway in Addu is called "the link road". A causeway connects 3 islands.
Gan, Malé, is the local port authority.
16 ships (1,000 GT or over) total 66 804 GT/.
As of 2005 ships number 12 cargo, 1 passenger/cargo, 2 petroleum tanker and 1 refrigerated cargo 1,
As of 2005 2 ships were registered in Panama.
The archipelago had 11 airports as of 2016. Two had paved runways. One stretched over . Another covered . Three airports had unpaved runways of as of 2005.
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Mali
Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali (; Bambara: "Mali ka Fasojamana"; N'Ko script: ߡߊߟߌ ߞߊ ߝߊߛߏߖߊߡߊߣߊ), is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali is the eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of just over . The population of Mali is /1e6 round 1 million. 67% of its population was estimated to be under the age of 25 in 2017. Its capital is Bamako. The sovereign state of Mali consists of eight regions and its borders on the north reach deep into the middle of the Sahara Desert, while the country's southern part, where the majority of inhabitants live, features the Niger and Senegal rivers. The country's economy centers on agriculture and mining. Some of Mali's prominent natural resources include gold, being the third largest producer of gold in the African continent, and salt.
Present-day Mali was once part of three West African empires that controlled trans-Saharan trade: the Ghana Empire (for which Ghana is named), the Mali Empire (for which Mali is named), and the Songhai Empire. During its golden age, there was a flourishing of mathematics, astronomy, literature, and art. At its peak in 1300, the Mali Empire covered an area about twice the size of modern-day France and stretched to the west coast of Africa. In the late 19th century, during the Scramble for Africa, France seized control of Mali, making it a part of French Sudan. French Sudan (then known as the Sudanese Republic) joined with Senegal in 1959, achieving independence in 1960 as the Mali Federation. Shortly thereafter, following Senegal's withdrawal from the federation, the Sudanese Republic declared itself the independent Republic of Mali. After a long period of one-party rule, a coup in 1991 led to the writing of a new constitution and the establishment of Mali as a democratic, multi-party state.
In January 2012, an armed conflict broke out in northern Mali, in which Tuareg rebels took control of a territory in the north, and in April declared the secession of a new state, Azawad. The conflict was complicated by a military coup that took place in March and later fighting between Tuareg and other rebel factions. In response to territorial gains, the French military launched Opération Serval in January 2013. A month later, Malian and French forces recaptured most of the north. Presidential elections were held on 28 July 2013, with a second-round run-off held on 11 August, and legislative elections were held on 24 November and 15 December 2013.
The name "Mali" is taken from the name of the Mali Empire. The name means "the place where the king lives" and carries a connotation of strength.
Guinean writer Djibril Niane suggests in "Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali" (1965) that it is not impossible that Mali was the name given to one of the capitals of the emperors. 14th-century Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta reported that the capital of the Mali Empire was called Mali. One Mandinka tradition tells that the legendary first emperor Sundiata Keita changed himself into a hippopotamus upon his death in the Sankarani River and that it's possible to find villages in the area of this river, termed "old Mali", which have Mali for a name. A study of Malian proverbs noted that in old Mali, there is a village called Malikoma, which means "New Mali", and that "Mali" could have formerly been the name of a city.
Another theory suggests that "Mali" is a Fulani pronunciation of the name of the Mande peoples. It is suggested that a sound shift led to the change, whereby in Fulani the alveolar segment shifts to and the terminal vowel denasalises and raises, leading "Manden" to shift to .
Rock paintings and carvings indicate that northern Mali has been inhabited since prehistoric times when the Sahara was fertile grassland. Farming took place by 5000 BC and iron was used around 500 BC. Large settlements began to develop in 300 A.D., including Djenne.
Mali was once part of three famed West African empires which controlled trans-Saharan trade in gold, salt, slaves, and other precious commodities majorly during the reign of Mansa Musa from c.1312-c.1337. These Sahelian kingdoms had neither rigid geopolitical boundaries nor rigid ethnic identities. The earliest of these empires was the Ghana Empire, which was dominated by the Soninke, a Mande-speaking people. The empire expanded throughout West Africa from the 8th century until 1078, when it was conquered by the Almoravids.
The Mali Empire later formed on the upper Niger River, and reached the height of power in the 14th century. Under the Mali Empire, the ancient cities of Djenné and Timbuktu were centers of both trade and Islamic learning. The empire later declined as a result of internal intrigue, ultimately being supplanted by the Songhai Empire. The Songhai people originated in current northwestern Nigeria. The Songhai had long been a major power in West Africa subject to the Mali Empire's rule.
In the late 14th century, the Songhai gradually gained independence from the Mali Empire and expanded, ultimately subsuming the entire eastern portion of the Mali Empire. The Songhai Empire's eventual collapse was largely the result of a Moroccan invasion in 1591, under the command of Judar Pasha. The fall of the Songhai Empire marked the end of the region's role as a trading crossroads. Following the establishment of sea routes by the European powers, the trans-Saharan trade routes lost significance.
One of the worst famines in the region's recorded history occurred in the 18th century. According to John Iliffe, "The worst crises were in the 1680s, when famine extended from the Senegambian coast to the Upper Nile and 'many sold themselves for slaves, only to get a sustenance', and especially in 1738–1756, when West Africa's greatest recorded subsistence crisis, due to drought and locusts, reportedly killed half the population of Timbuktu."
Mali fell under the control of France during the late 19th century. By 1905, most of the area was under firm French control as a part of French Sudan. In early 1959, French Sudan (which changed its name to the Sudanese Republic) and Senegal united to become the Mali Federation. The Mali Federation gained independence from France on 20 June 1960.
Senegal withdrew from the federation in August 1960, which allowed the Sudanese Republic to become the independent Republic of Mali on 22 September 1960, and that date is now the country's Independence Day. Modibo Keïta was elected the first president. Keïta quickly established a one-party state, adopted an independent African and socialist orientation with close ties to the East, and implemented extensive nationalization of economic resources. In 1960, the population of Mali was reported to be about 4.1 million.
On 19 November 1968, following progressive economic decline, the Keïta regime was overthrown in a bloodless military coup led by Moussa Traoré, a day which is now commemorated as Liberation Day. The subsequent military-led regime, with Traoré as president, attempted to reform the economy. His efforts were frustrated by political turmoil and a devastating drought between 1968 and 1974, in which famine killed thousands of people. The Traoré regime faced student unrest beginning in the late 1970s and three coup attempts. The Traoré regime repressed all dissenters until the late 1980s.
The government continued to attempt economic reforms, and the populace became increasingly dissatisfied. In response to growing demands for multi-party democracy, the Traoré regime allowed some limited political liberalization. They refused to usher in a full-fledged democratic system. In 1990, cohesive opposition movements began to emerge, and was complicated by the turbulent rise of ethnic violence in the north following the return of many Tuaregs to Mali.
Anti-government protests in 1991 led to a coup, a transitional government, and a new constitution. Opposition to the corrupt and dictatorial regime of General Moussa Traoré grew during the 1980s. During this time strict programs, imposed to satisfy demands of the International Monetary Fund, brought increased hardship upon the country's population, while elites close to the government supposedly lived in growing wealth. Peaceful student protests in January 1991 were brutally suppressed, with mass arrests and torture of leaders and participants. Scattered acts of rioting and vandalism of public buildings followed, but most actions by the dissidents remained nonviolent.
From 22 March through 26 March 1991, mass pro-democracy rallies and a nationwide strike was held in both urban and rural communities, which became known as "les évenements" ("the events") or the March Revolution. In Bamako, in response to mass demonstrations organized by university students and later joined by trade unionists and others, soldiers opened fire indiscriminately on the nonviolent demonstrators. Riots broke out briefly following the shootings. Barricades as well as roadblocks were erected and Traoré declared a state of emergency and imposed a nightly curfew. Despite an estimated loss of 300 lives over the course of four days, nonviolent protesters continued to return to Bamako each day demanding the resignation of the dictatorial president and the implementation of democratic policies.
26 March 1991 is the day that marks the clash between military soldiers and peaceful demonstrating students which climaxed in the massacre of dozens under the orders of then President Moussa Traoré. He and three associates were later tried and convicted and received the death sentence for their part in the decision-making of that day. Nowadays, the day is a national holiday in order to remember the tragic events and the people that were killed. The coup is remembered as Mali's March Revolution of 1991.
By 26 March, the growing refusal of soldiers to fire into the largely nonviolent protesting crowds turned into a full-scale tumult, and resulted in thousands of soldiers putting down their arms and joining the pro-democracy movement. That afternoon, Lieutenant Colonel Amadou Toumani Touré announced on the radio that he had arrested the dictatorial president, Moussa Traoré. As a consequence, opposition parties were legalized and a national congress of civil and political groups met to draft a new democratic constitution to be approved by a national referendum.
In 1992, Alpha Oumar Konaré won Mali's first democratic, multi-party presidential election, before being re-elected for a second term in 1997, which was the last allowed under the constitution. In 2002 Amadou Toumani Touré, a retired general who had been the leader of the military aspect of the 1991 democratic uprising, was elected. During this democratic period Mali was regarded as one of the most politically and socially stable countries in Africa.
Slavery persists in Mali today with as many as 200,000 people held in direct servitude to a master. In the Tuareg Rebellion of 2012, ex-slaves were a vulnerable population with reports of some slaves being recaptured by their former masters.
In January 2012 a Tuareg rebellion began in Northern Mali, led by the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA). In March, military officer Amadou Sanogo seized power in a coup d'état, citing Touré's failures in quelling the rebellion, and leading to sanctions and an embargo by the Economic Community of West African States. The MNLA quickly took control of the north, declaring independence as Azawad. However, Islamist groups including Ansar Dine and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), who had helped the MNLA defeat the government, turned on the Tuareg and took control of the North with the goal of implementing sharia in Mali.
On 11 January 2013, the French Armed Forces intervened at the request of the interim government.
On 30 January, the coordinated advance of the French and Malian troops claimed to have retaken the last remaining Islamist stronghold of Kidal, which was also the last of three northern provincial capitals. On 2 February, the French President, François Hollande, joined Mali's interim President, Dioncounda Traoré, in a public appearance in recently recaptured Timbuktu.
In the central Mali province of Mopti, conflict has escalated since 2015 between agricultural communities like the Dogon and the Bambara, and the pastoral Fula (or Fulani) people. Historically, the two sides have fought over access to land and water, factors which have been exacerbated by climate change as the Fula move into new areas. The Dogon and the Bambara communities have formed militias, or "self-defense groups", to fight the Fula. They accuse the Fula of working with armed Islamists linked to al-Qaeda. While some Fula have joined Islamist groups, Human Rights Watch reports that the links have been "exaggerated and instrumentalized by different actors for opportunistic ends".
Added a top Mali military commander:“I’ve discussed the growing violence with my commanders and with village chiefs from all sides. Yes, sure, there are jihadists in this zone, but the real problem is banditry, animal theft, score settling – people are enriching themselves using the fight against terrorists as a cover.”The conflict has seen the creation and growth of Dogon and Bambara militias. The government of Mali is suspected of supporting some of these groups under the guise of they being proxies in the war against Islamists in the Northern Mali conflict. The government denies this. One such militia is the Dogon group Dan Na Ambassagou, created in 2016.
In September 2018, the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue negotiated a unilateral ceasefire with Dan Na Ambassagou "in the context of the conflict which opposes the group to other community armed groups in central Mali". However, the group has been blamed for the 24 March 2019 massacre of 160 Fula villagers. The group denied the attack, but afterwards Malian President Keita ordered the group to disband.
The UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, warned of a growing ethnicization of the conflict.
The United Nations reported that the number of children killed in the conflict in the first six months of 2019 was twice as many for the entire year of 2018. Many of the children have been killed in intercommunal attacks attributed to ethnic militias, with the majority of attacks occurring around Mopti. It is reported that around 900 schools have closed down and that armed militias are recruiting children.
During the first week of October 2019, two jihadist attacks in the towns of Boulikessi and Mondoro killed more than 25 Mali soldiers near the border with Burkina Faso. The Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita declared that "no military coup will prevail in Mali", continuing that he doesn’t think it "is on the agenda at all and cannot worry us".
Mali is a landlocked country in West Africa, located southwest of Algeria. It lies between latitudes 10° and 25°N, and longitudes 13°W and 5°E. Mali borders Algeria to the north-northeast, Niger to the east, Burkina Faso to the south-east, Ivory Coast to the south, Guinea to the south-west, and Senegal to the west and Mauritania to the north-west.
At , Mali is the world's 24th-largest country and is comparable in size to South Africa or Angola. Most of the country lies in the southern Sahara Desert, which produces an extremely hot, dust-laden Sudanian savanna zone. Mali is mostly flat, rising to rolling northern plains covered by sand. The Adrar des Ifoghas massif lies in the northeast.
Mali lies in the torrid zone and is among the hottest countries in the world. The thermal equator, which matches the hottest spots year-round on the planet based on the mean daily annual temperature, crosses the country. Most of Mali receives negligible rainfall and droughts are very frequent. Late April to early October is the rainy season in the southernmost area. During this time, flooding of the Niger River is common, creating the Inner Niger Delta. The vast northern desert part of Mali has a hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification ("BWh") with long, extremely hot summers and scarce rainfall which decreases northwards. The central area has a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification ("BSh") with very high temperatures year-round, a long, intense dry season and a brief, irregular rainy season. The southern areas have a tropical wet and dry climate. (Köppen climate classification ("Aw") In review, Mali's climate is tropical, with March to May being the hot, dry season. June to October is rainy, humid and mild. November to February is the cool, dry season.
Mali has considerable natural resources, with gold, uranium, phosphates, kaolinite, salt and limestone being most widely exploited. Mali is estimated to have in excess of 17,400 tonnes of uranium (measured + indicated + inferred). In 2012, a further uranium mineralized north zone was identified. Mali faces numerous environmental challenges, including desertification, deforestation, soil erosion, and inadequate supplies of potable water.
Since 2016, Mali has been divided into ten regions and the District of Bamako. Each region has a governor. The implementation of the two newest regions, Taoudénit (formerly part of Tombouctou Region) and Ménaka (formerly Ménaka Cercle in Gao Region), has been ongoing since January 2016; a governor and transitional council has been appointed for both regions. The ten regions in turn are subdivided into 56 "cercle"s and 703 "communes".
The "régions" and Capital District are:
In March 2012, the Malian government lost control over Tombouctou, Gao and Kidal Regions and the north-eastern portion of Mopti Region. On 6 April 2012, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad unilaterally declared their secession from Mali as Azawad, an act that neither Mali nor the international community recognised. The government later regained control over these areas.
Until the military coup of 22 March 2012 and a second military coup in December 2012, Mali was a constitutional democracy governed by the Constitution of 12 January 1992, which was amended in 1999. The constitution provides for a separation of powers among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. The system of government can be described as "semi-presidential". Executive power is vested in a president, who is elected to a five-year term by universal suffrage and is limited to two terms.
The president serves as a chief of state and commander in chief of the armed forces. A prime minister appointed by the president serves as head of government and in turn appoints the Council of Ministers. The unicameral National Assembly is Mali's sole legislative body, consisting of deputies elected to five-year terms. Following the 2007 elections, the Alliance for Democracy and Progress held 113 of 160 seats in the assembly. The assembly holds two regular sessions each year, during which it debates and votes on legislation that has been submitted by a member or by the government.
Mali's constitution provides for an independent judiciary, but the executive continues to exercise influence over the judiciary by virtue of power to appoint judges and oversee both judicial functions and law enforcement. Mali's highest courts are the Supreme Court, which has both judicial and administrative powers, and a separate Constitutional Court that provides judicial review of legislative acts and serves as an election arbiter. Various lower courts exist, though village chiefs and elders resolve most local disputes in rural areas.
Mali's foreign policy orientation has become increasingly pragmatic and pro-Western over time. Since the institution of a democratic form of government in 2002, Mali's relations with the West in general and with the United States in particular have improved significantly. Mali has a longstanding yet ambivalent relationship with France, a former colonial ruler. Mali was active in regional organizations such as the African Union until its suspension over the 2012 Malian coup d'état.
Working to control and resolve regional conflicts, such as in Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, is one of Mali's major foreign policy goals. Mali feels threatened by the potential for the spillover of conflicts in neighboring states, and relations with those neighbors are often uneasy. General insecurity along borders in the north, including cross-border banditry and terrorism, remain troubling issues in regional relations.
In early 2019, Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for an attack on a United Nations base in Mali that killed 10 peacekeepers from Chad. 25 people were reported to have been injured in the attack. Al Qaeda's stated reason for the attack was Chad's re-establishing diplomatic ties with Israel. The base was attacked in Anguelhok, a village located in an especially unstable region of the country.
Mali's military forces consist of an army, which includes land forces and air force, as well as the paramilitary Gendarmerie and Republican Guard, all of which are under the control of Mali's Ministry of Defense and Veterans, headed by a civilian. The military is underpaid, poorly equipped, and in need of rationalization.
The Central Bank of West African States handles the financial affairs of Mali and additional members of the Economic Community of West African States. Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world. The average worker's annual salary is approximately US$1,500.
Mali underwent economic reform, beginning in 1988 by signing agreements with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. During 1988 to 1996, Mali's government largely reformed public enterprises. Since the agreement, sixteen enterprises were privatized, 12 partially privatized, and 20 liquidated. In 2005, the Malian government conceded a railroad company to the Savage Corporation. Two major companies, Societé de Telecommunications du Mali (SOTELMA) and the Cotton Ginning Company (CMDT), were expected to be privatized in 2008.
Between 1992 and 1995, Mali implemented an economic adjustment programme that resulted in economic growth and a reduction in financial imbalances. The programme increased social and economic conditions, and led to Mali joining the World Trade Organization on 31 May 1995.
Mali is also a member of the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA). The gross domestic product (GDP) has risen since. In 2002, the GDP amounted to US$3.4 billion, and increased to US$5.8 billion in 2005, which amounts to an approximately 17.6% annual growth rate.
Mali is a part of the "Franc Zone" ("Zone Franc"), which means that it uses the CFA franc. Mali is connected with the French government by agreement since 1962 (creation of BCEAO). Today all seven countries of BCEAO (including Mali) are connected to French Central Bank.
Mali's key industry is agriculture. Cotton is the country's largest crop export and is exported west throughout Senegal and Ivory Coast. During 2002, 620,000 tons of cotton were produced in Mali but cotton prices declined significantly in 2003. In addition to cotton, Mali produces rice, millet, corn, vegetables, tobacco, and tree crops. Gold, livestock and agriculture amount to 80% of Mali's exports.
Eighty percent of Malian workers are employed in agriculture. 15% of Malian workers are employed in the service sector. Seasonal variations lead to regular temporary unemployment of agricultural workers.
In 1991, with the assistance of the International Development Association, Mali relaxed the enforcement of mining codes which led to renewed foreign interest and investment in the mining industry. Gold is mined in the southern region and Mali has the third highest gold production in Africa (after South Africa and Ghana).
The emergence of gold as Mali's leading export product since 1999 has helped mitigate some of the negative impact of the cotton and Ivory Coast crises. Other natural resources include kaolin, salt, phosphate, and limestone.
Electricity and water are maintained by the Energie du Mali, or EDM, and textiles are generated by Industry Textile du Mali, or ITEMA. Mali has made efficient use of hydroelectricity, consisting of over half of Mali's electrical power. In 2002, 700 GWh of hydroelectric power were produced in Mali.
Energie du Mali is an electric company that provides electricity to Mali citizens. Only 55% of the population in cities have access to EDM.
Mali is endowed with renewable energy resources and according to the index of geopolitical gains and losses after energy transition (GeGaLo Index) it can gain significant benefits from the global transition to renewable energy. It is ranked no. 11 among 156 nations in the GeGaLo Index.
In Mali, there is a railway that connects to bordering countries. There are also approximately 29 airports of which 8 have paved runways. Urban areas are known for their large quantity of green and white taxicabs. A significant sum of the population is dependent on public transportation.
In , Mali's population was an estimated /1e6 round 1 million. The population is predominantly rural (68% in 2002), and 5%–10% of Malians are nomadic. More than 90% of the population lives in the southern part of the country, especially in Bamako, which has over 1 million residents.
In 2007, about 48% of Malians were younger than 12 years old, 49% were 15–64 years old, and 3% were 65 and older. The median age was 15.9 years. The birth rate in 2014 is 45.53 births per 1,000, and the total fertility rate (in 2012) was 6.4 children per woman. The death rate in 2007 was 16.5 deaths per 1,000. Life expectancy at birth was 53.06 years total (51.43 for males and 54.73 for females). Mali has one of the world's highest rates of infant mortality, with 106 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2007.
Mali's population encompasses a number of sub-Saharan ethnic groups.
The Bambara () are by far the largest single ethnic group, making up 36.5% of the population.
Collectively, the Bambara, Soninké, Khassonké, and Malinké (also called Mandinka), all part of the broader Mandé group, constitute 50% of Mali's population. Other significant groups are the Fula (; ) (17%), Voltaic (12%), Songhai (6%), and Tuareg and Moor (10%). In Mali as well as Niger, the Moors are also known as Azawagh Arabs, named after the Azawagh region of the Sahara. They speak mainly Hassaniya Arabic which is one of the regional varieties of Arabic. Personal names reflect Mali's complex regional identities.
In the far north, there is a division between Berber-descended Tuareg nomad populations and the darker-skinned Bella or Tamasheq people, due to the historical spread of slavery in the region.
An estimated 800,000 people in Mali are descended from slaves. Slavery in Mali has persisted for centuries.
The Arabic population kept slaves well into the 20th century, until slavery was suppressed by French authorities around the mid-20th century. There still persist certain hereditary servitude relationships, and according to some estimates, even today approximately 200,000 Malians are still enslaved.
Mixed European/African descendants of Muslims of Spanish, as well some French, Irish, Italian and Portuguese origins live in Mali, they are known as the Arma people (1% of the nation's population).
Although Mali has enjoyed a reasonably good inter-ethnic relationships based on the long history of coexistence, some hereditary servitude and bondage relationship exist, as well as ethnic tension between settled Songhai and nomadic Tuaregs of the north. Due to a backlash against the northern population after independence, Mali is now in a situation where both groups complain about discrimination on the part of the other group. This conflict also plays a role in the continuing Northern Mali conflict where there is a tension between both Tuaregs and the Malian government, and the Tuaregs and radical Islamists who are trying to establish sharia law.
Mali's official language is French and over 40 African languages also are spoken by the various ethnic groups. About 80% of Mali's population can communicate in Bambara, which serves as an important "lingua franca".
According to the 2009 census, the languages spoken in Mali were Bambara by 51.5%, Fula by 8.3%, Dogon by 6.6% Soninké by 5.7%, Songhai by 5.3%, Malinké by 5.2%, Minianka by 3.8%, Tamasheq by 3.2%, Sénoufo by 2%, Bobo by 1.9%, Tieyaxo Bozo by 1.6%, Kassonké by 1.1%, Maure by 1%, Dafing by 0.4%, Samogo by 0.4%, Arabic by 0.3%, other Malian languages by 0.5%, other African languages by 0.2%, Foreign languages by 0.2%, and 0.7% didn't declare their language.
Mali has 12 national languages beside French and Bambara, namely Bomu, Tieyaxo Bozo, Toro So Dogon, Maasina Fulfulde, Hassaniya Arabic, Mamara Senoufo, Kita Maninkakan, Soninke, Koyraboro Senni, Syenara Senoufo, Tamasheq and Xaasongaxango. Each is spoken as a first language primarily by the ethnic group with which it is associated.
Islam was introduced to West Africa in the 11th century and remains the predominant religion in much of the region. An estimated 90% of Malians are Muslim (mostly Sunni), approximately 5% are Christian (about two-thirds Roman Catholic and one-third Protestant) and the remaining 5% adhere to traditional African religions such as the Dogon religion. Atheism and agnosticism are believed to be rare among Malians, most of whom practice their religion daily.
The constitution establishes a secular state and provides for freedom of religion, and the government largely respects this right.
Islam as historically practiced in Mali has been malleable and adapted to local conditions; relations between Muslims and practitioners of minority religious faiths have generally been amicable.
After the 2012 imposition of sharia rule in northern parts of the country, however, Mali came to be listed high (number 7) in the Christian persecution index published by Open Doors, which described the persecution in the north as severe.
Public education in Mali is in principle provided free of charge and is compulsory for nine years between the ages of seven and sixteen. The system encompasses six years of primary education beginning at age 7, followed by six years of secondary education. Mali's actual primary school enrollment rate is low, in large part because families are unable to cover the cost of uniforms, books, supplies, and other fees required to attend.
In 2017, the primary school enrollment rate was 61% (65% of males and 58% of females). In the late 1990s, the secondary school enrollment rate was 15% (20% of males and 10% of females). The education system is plagued by a lack of schools in rural areas, as well as shortages of teachers and materials.
Estimates of literacy rates in Mali range from 27–30 to 46.4%, with literacy rates significantly lower among women than men. The University of Bamako, which includes four constituent universities, is the largest university in the country and enrolls approximately 60,000 undergraduate and graduate students.
Mali faces numerous health challenges related to poverty, malnutrition, and inadequate hygiene and sanitation. Mali's health and development indicators rank among the worst in the world. Life expectancy at birth is estimated to be 53.06 years in 2012. In 2000, 62–65% of the population was estimated to have access to safe drinking water and only 69% to sanitation services of some kind. In 2001, the general government expenditures on health totaled about US$4 per capita at an average exchange rate.
Efforts have been made to improve nutrition, and reduce associated health problems, by encouraging women to make nutritious versions of local recipes. For example, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and the Aga Khan Foundation, trained women's groups to make "equinut", a healthy and nutritional version of the traditional recipe "di-dèguè" (comprising peanut paste, honey and millet or rice flour). The aim was to boost nutrition and livelihoods by producing a product that women could make and sell, and which would be accepted by the local community because of its local heritage.
Medical facilities in Mali are very limited, and medicines are in short supply. Malaria and other arthropod-borne diseases are prevalent in Mali, as are a number of infectious diseases such as cholera and tuberculosis. Mali's population also suffers from a high rate of child malnutrition and a low rate of immunization. An estimated 1.9% of the adult and children population was afflicted with HIV/AIDS that year, among the lowest rates in Sub-Saharan Africa. An estimated 85%–91% of Mali's girls and women have had female genital mutilation (2006 and 2001 data).
In 2017, Mali ranked 157th out of 160 countries in the gender inequality index as reported by the United Nations development Programme. The Malian Constitution states that it protects women's rights, however many laws exist that discriminate against women. Provisions in the laws limit women's decision-making power after marriage, in which the husband becomes superior to his wife. Women are blamed for not maintaining the appearance of their husbands and are also blamed for the actions of their children if they misbehave, which encourages the cultural attitude that women are inferior to men. The lack of participation of women in politics is due to the idea that politics is associated with men and that women should avoid this sector. Girls' education is also an area in which boys dominate, since it is a better investment for the parents. As traditional values and practices have contributed to gender inequality in Mali, conflict and lawlessness have also influenced the growing gap in gender through gender-based violence. The unstable government of Mali has led to organizations like USAID attempting to improve the lives of the people, mainly women and girls' rights in order to re-engage the development of the country.
Religion, the patriarchal social system, and gender-based violence are the social factors that shape women in Mali. These factors serve as the norm for gender relations, but are also the cause for inequalities and strengthen male domination within the household. Majority of the population is Muslim and it is reinforced that males dominate the household. Traditional roles of men and women are emphasized in which the man is the head of the household and women have to meet the needs and demands of men. So girls at a young age are shown and learn household activities like chores, cooking, childcare, etc. as that is the final duty of a woman to become a housewife and rear her children while the men provides for the family. In the patriarchal social system, men are considered the authority and women are subject to obey and respect men. The primary roles of women are that of wife and mother, so childcare, house chores, meal preparation, and a discrete life is required of a Malian women. This means that women, in some cases, are subject to a double burden due to having professional and family obligations that does not apply to men. This inequality toward women then leads to the lack of education of girls in a household because boys are the priority and their education is necessary in comparison to the girls who will eventually marry and join their husband's family. Gender-based violence in Mali happens at the national and household level. At the national level, in 2012 the conflict in the Northern part of the country increased cases of kidnappings and rape toward women. The conflict impacted gender and social system, and reduced women's access to resources, economy, and opportunities. The areas of impact then influence the negative score of Mali in relation to gender equality. At the household level, Malian women face gender-based violence through domestic violence, forced marriages, marital rape, and cultural practices in the family. The Demographic Health Survey for Mali in 2013 stated that 76% of women and 54% of men believed physical harm towards women was acceptable if the women burnt food, argues back, goes out without notifying her husband, the children are not tended to or refuses sexual relations with her husband.
The lack of education has increased gender inequality in Mali because not many women are working outside the household are even participating in the Public Administration sector. After adjusting the entrance requirements and access to education, girls still have lower enrollment rates and less access to formal education. Drop-out rates for girls are 15% higher than that of boys because they have a higher responsibility at home and most parents refuse to allow all their children to go to school, so boys tend to become educated. Similarly, technical and vocational education has a lower numbers of girls participating and are inadequately distributed in the country because the training centers are focused in the urban cities. Finally, higher education for girls consist of short programs because early marriages prevent most girls from pursuing a longer term education program like those in science. Although women do not have the same access of education, in recent decades women have been entering and representing in decision-making positions in the Public Administration sector. Members of Parliament, 15 were women in 2010 out of 147 members. Recent decades show that women are slowly joining important decision-making positions which is changing the attitude and status of women in Mali, which has led to the promotion of women's right in the political sphere.
Legislation at the international and national levels have been implemented over the decades to help promote women's rights in Mali. At the international, Mali signed the Beijing Platform for Action which suggest that women should participate in decision-making and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women which is the foundation to women's rights promotion. At the national level, Mali's Constitution has the Decree No. 092-073P-CTSP that claims equality to all Malian citizens and discrimination is prohibited, which has not been followed. The Poverty Reduction Strategy Programme (PRSP) and the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Programme under the Malian Government seek to improve the well-being of the citizens, and changes to governance and gender in the country. The Ministry for Advancement of Women, Children and the Family was created specifically for women and children so that their basics rights and needs get met under the law. Although there exists legislation and policy for gender equality the institutionalization of the National Gender Policy of Mali is necessary to support the importance of women's rights. Strengthening and the support of girls' and women's access to education and training is recommended to improve gender equality in Mali. The involvement of international organizations like USAID assist Mali financially to enhance their development through the efforts of the improvement of women's rights.
The varied everyday culture of Malians reflects the country's ethnic and geographic diversity. Most Malians wear flowing, colorful robes called boubous that are typical of West Africa. Malians frequently participate in traditional festivals, dances, and ceremonies.
Malian musical traditions are derived from the griots, who are known as "Keepers of Memories". Malian music is diverse and has several different genres. Some famous Malian influences in music are kora virtuoso musician Toumani Diabaté, the ngoni with Bassekou Kouyate the virtuoso of the electric jeli ngoni, the late roots and blues guitarist Ali Farka Touré, the Tuareg band Tinariwen, Khaira Arby, and several Afro-pop artists such as Salif Keita, the duo Amadou et Mariam, Oumou Sangare, Fatoumata Diawara, Rokia Traore, and Habib Koité. Dance also plays a large role in Malian culture. Dance parties are common events among friends, and traditional mask dances are performed at ceremonial events.
Though Mali's literature is less famous than its music, Mali has always been one of Africa's liveliest intellectual centers. Mali's literary tradition is passed mainly by word of mouth, with "jalis" reciting or singing histories and stories known by heart. Amadou Hampâté Bâ, Mali's best-known historian, spent much of his life writing these oral traditions down for the world to remember.
The best-known novel by a Malian writer is Yambo Ouologuem's "Le devoir de violence", which won the 1968 Prix Renaudot but whose legacy was marred by accusations of plagiarism. Other well-known Malian writers include Baba Traoré, Modibo Sounkalo Keita, Massa Makan Diabaté, Moussa Konaté, and Fily Dabo Sissoko.
The most popular sport in Mali is association football, which became more prominent after Mali hosted the 2002 African Cup of Nations. Most towns and cities have regular games; the most popular teams nationally are Djoliba AC, Stade Malien, and Real Bamako, all based in the capital. Informal games are often played by youths using a bundle of rags as a ball.
Basketball is another major sport; the Mali women's national basketball team, led by Hamchetou Maiga, competed at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Traditional wrestling ("la lutte") is also somewhat common, though popularity has declined in recent years. The game wari, a mancala variant, is a common pastime.
Rice and millet are the staples of Malian cuisine, which is heavily based on cereal grains. Grains are generally prepared with sauces made from edible leaves, such as spinach or baobab, with tomato peanut sauce, and may be accompanied by pieces of grilled meat (typically chicken, mutton, beef, or goat). Malian cuisine varies regionally. Other popular dishes include fufu, jollof rice, and maafe.
In Mali, there are several newspapers such as "Les Echos", "L'Essor", "Info Matin", "Nouvel Horizon", and "". Telecommunications in Mali include 869,600 mobile phones, 45,000 televisions and 414,985 Internet users.
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History of Mali
Mali is located in Africa.
The history of the territory of modern Mali may be divided into:
The borders of Mali are those of French Sudan, drawn in 1891. They are artificial, and unite part of the larger Sudan region with parts of the Sahara.
As a consequence, Mali is a multiethnic country, with a majority of its population consisting of Mandé peoples.
Mali's history is dominated by its role in trans-Saharan trade, connecting West Africa and the Maghreb. The Malian city Timbuktu is exemplary of this: situated on the southern fringe of the Sahara and close to the Niger River , it has played an important role in the trans-Saharan trade from the 13th century on, with the establishment of the Mali Empire.
Until the 19th century, Timbuktu remained important as an outpost at the southwestern fringe of the Muslim world and a hub of the Arab slave trade.
Mandinka from c. 1230 to c. 1600. The empire was founded by Sundiata Keita and became known for the wealth of its rulers, especially Mansa Musa I. The Mali Empire had many profound cultural influences on West Africa, allowing the spread of its language, laws and customs along the Niger River. It extended over a large area and consisted of numerous vassal kingdoms and provinces.
The Mali Empire began to weaken in the 15th century, but it remained dominant for much of the 15th. It survived into the 16th century, but by then had lost much of its former strength and importance.
The Mali Empire began to weaken by the mid 14th century. The Songhai took advantage of this and asserted their independence. The Songhai made Gao their capital and began an imperial expansion of their own throughout the western Sahel. And by 1420, Songhai was strong enough to exact tribute from Masina.
The emerging Songhai Empire and the declining Mali Empire co-existed during much of the later 14th and throughout the 15th century. In the later 15th century, control of Timbuktu shifted to the Songhai Empire.
The Songhai empire eventually collapsed under the pressure from the Moroccan Saadi dynasty. The turning point was the Battle of Tondibi of 13 March 1591. Morocco subsequently controlled Gao, Timbuktu, Djenné (also seen as Jenne), and related trade routes with much difficulty until around the end of the 17th century.
After the collapse of the Songhai Empire, no single state-controlled the region. The Moroccans only succeeded in occupying a few portions of the country, and even in those locations where they did attempt to rule, their hold was weak and challenged by rivals. Several small successor kingdoms arose. the most notable in what is now Mali were:
The Bambara Empire existed as a centralized state from 1712 to 1861, was based at Ségou and also Timbuktu (also seen as Segu), and ruled parts of central and southern Mali. It existed until El Hadj Umar Tall, a Toucouleur conqueror swept across West Africa from Futa Tooro. Umar Tall's mujahideen readily defeated the Bambara, seizing Ségou itself on March 10, 1861, and declaring an end to the empire.
A split in the Coulibaly dynasty in Ségou led to the establishment of a second Bambara state, the kingdom of Kaarta, in what is now western Mali, in 1753. It was defeated in 1854 by Umar Tall, leader of Toucouleur Empire, before his war with Ségou.
The Senufo Kenedugu Kingdom originated in the 17th century in the area around what is now the border of Mali and Burkina Faso. In 1876 the capital was moved to Sikasso. It resisted the effort of Samori Ture, leader of Wassoulou Empire, in 1887, to conquer it, and was one of the last kingdoms in the area to fall to the French in 1898.
An Islamic-inspired uprising in the largely Fula Inner Niger Delta region against rule by Ségou in 1818 led to the establishment of a separate state. It later allied with Bambara Empire against Umar Tall's Toucouleur Empire and was also defeated by it in 1862.
This empire, founded by El Hadj Umar Tall of the Toucouleur peoples, beginning in 1864, ruled eventually most of what is now Mali until the French conquest of the region in 1890. This was in some ways a turbulent period, with ongoing resistance in Messina and increasing pressure from the French.
The Wassoulou or Wassulu Empire was a short-lived (1878–1898) empire, led by Samori Ture in the predominantly Malinké area of what is now upper Guinea and southwestern Mali (Wassoulou). It later moved to Ivory Coast before being conquered by the French.÷
Mali fell under French colonial rule in 1892. In 1893, the French appointed a civilian governor of the territory they called "Soudan Français" (French Sudan), but active resistance to French rule continued. By 1905, most of the area was under firm French control.
French Sudan was administered as part of the Federation of French West Africa and supplied labor to France's colonies on the coast of West Africa. In 1958 the renamed Sudanese Republic obtained complete internal autonomy and joined the French Community. In early 1959, the Sudanese Republic and Senegal formed the Federation of Mali. On 31 March 1960 France agreed to the Federation of Mali becoming fully independent. On 20 June 1960 the Federation of Mali became an independent country and Modibo Keïta became its first President.
Following the withdrawal of Senegal from the federation in August 1960, the former Sudanese Republic became the Republic of Mali on 22 September 1960, with Modibo Keïta as president.
President Modibo Keïta, whose Sudanese Union-African Democratic Rally (US/RDA) party had dominated pre-independence politics (as a member of the African Democratic Rally), moved quickly to declare a single-party state and to pursue a socialist policy based on extensive nationalization. Keïta withdrew from the French Community and also had close ties to the Eastern bloc. A continuously deteriorating economy led to a decision to rejoin the Franc Zone in 1967 and modify some of the economic excesses.
On November 09, 1968, a group of young officers staged a bloodless coup and set up a 14-member Military Committee for National Liberation (CMLN), with Lt. Moussa Traoré as president. The military leaders attempted to pursue economic reforms, but for several years faced debilitting internal political struggles and the disastrous Sahelian drought.
A new constitution, approved in 1974, created a one-party state and was designed to move Mali toward civilian rule. However, the military leaders remained in power. In September 1976, a new political party was established, the Democratic Union of the Malian People (UDPM), based on the concept of democratic centralism. Single-party presidential and legislative elections were held in June 1979, and Gen. Moussa Traoré received 99% of the votes. His efforts at consolidating the single-party government were challenged in 1980 by student-led anti-government demonstrations that led to three coup attempts, which were brutally quashed.
The political situation stabilized during 1981 and 1982, and remained generally calm throughout the 1980s. In late December 1985, however, a border dispute between Mali and Burkina Faso over the mineral rich Agacher strip erupted into a brief war. The UDPM spread its structure to Cercles and Arrondissements across the land.
Shifting its attention to Mali's economic difficulties, the government approved plans for some reforms of the state enterprise system, and attempted to control public corruption. It implemented cereal marketing liberalization, created new incentives to private enterprise, and worked out a new structural adjustment agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But the populace became increasingly dissatisfied with the austerity measures imposed by the IMF plan as well as their perception that the ruling elite was not subject to the same strictures. In response to the growing demands for multiparty democracy then sweeping the continent, the Traoré regime did allow some limited political liberalization. In National Assembly elections in June 1988, multiple UDPM candidates were permitted to contest each seat, and the regime organized nationwide conferences to consider how to implement democracy within the one-party framework. Nevertheless, the regime refused to usher in a full-fledged democratic system.
However, by 1990, cohesive opposition movements began to emerge, including the National Democratic Initiative Committee and the Alliance for Democracy in Mali (Alliance pour la Démocratie au Mali, ADEMA). The increasingly turbulent political situation was complicated by the rise of ethnic violence in the north in mid-1990. The return to Mali of large numbers of Tuareg who had migrated to Algeria and Libya during the prolonged drought increased tensions in the region between the nomadic Tuareg and the sedentary population. Ostensibly fearing a Tuareg secessionist movement in the north, the Traoré regime imposed a state of emergency and harshly repressed Tuareg unrest. Despite the signing of a peace accord in January 1991, unrest and periodic armed clashes continued.
As in other African countries, demands for multi-party democracy increased. The Traoré government allowed some opening of the system, including the establishment of an independent press and independent political associations, but insisted that Mali was not ready for democracy. In early 1991, student-led anti-government rioting broke out again, but this time it was supported also by government workers and others. On March 26, 1991, after 4 days of intense anti-government rioting, a group of 17 military officers, led by Amadou Toumani Touré, arrested President Traoré and suspended the constitution.
Within days, these officers joined with the Coordinating Committee of Democratic Associations to form a predominantly civilian, 25-member ruling body, the Transitional Committee for the Salvation of the People (CTSP). The CTSP then appointed a civilian-led government. A national conference held in August 1991 produced a draft constitution (approved in a referendum January 12, 1992), a charter for political parties, and an electoral code. Political parties were allowed to form freely. Between January and April 1992, a president, National Assembly, and municipal councils were elected. On June 8, 1992, Alpha Oumar Konaré, the candidate of ADEMA, was inaugurated as the president of Mali's Third Republic.
In 1997, attempts to renew national institutions through democratic elections ran into administrative difficulties, resulting in a court-ordered annulment of the legislative elections held in April 1997. The exercise, nonetheless, demonstrated the overwhelming strength of President Konaré's ADEMA party, causing some other historic parties to boycott subsequent elections. President Konaré won the presidential election against scant opposition on May 11. In the two-round legislative elections conducted on July 21 and August 3, ADEMA secured over 80% of the National Assembly seats.
Konaré stepped down after his constitutionally mandated limit of two terms and did not run in the 2002 elections. Touré then reemerged, this time as a civilian. Running as an independent on a platform of national unity, Touré won the presidency in a runoff against the candidate of Adema, which had been divided by infighting and suffered from the creation of a spin-off party, the Rally for Mali. Touré had retained great popularity because of his role in the transitional government in 1991–92. The 2002 election was a milestone, marking Mali's first successful transition from one democratically elected president to another, despite the persistence of electoral irregularities and low voter turnout. In the 2002 legislative elections, no party gained a majority; Touré then appointed a politically inclusive government and pledged to tackle Mali's pressing social and economic development problems.
In January 2012 an insurgency has begun, led by the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA).
On 22 March 2012, it was reported that rebel troops from the military appeared on state TV announcing they had seized control of the country. Unrest over the president's handling of the conflict with the rebels was a motivating force. The former President was forced into hiding.
However, due to the 2012 insurgency in northern Mali, the military government controls only the southern third of the country, leaving the north of the country (known as Azawad) to MNLA rebels. The rebels control Timbuktu, 700 km from the capital. In response, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) froze assets and imposed an embargo, leaving some with only days of fuel. Mali is dependent on fuel imports trucked overland from Senegal and Ivory Coast.
As of July 17, 2012, the Tuareg rebels have since been pushed out by their allies, the Islamists, Ansar Dine, and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (A.Q.I.M.). An extremist ministate in northern Mali is the unexpected result from the collapse of the earlier coup d'etat by the angry army officers.
Refugees in the 92,000-person refugee camp at Mbera, Mauritania, describe the Islamists as "intent on imposing an Islam of lash and gun on Malian Muslims." The Islamists in Timbuktu have destroyed about a half-dozen venerable above-ground tombs of revered holy men, proclaiming the tombs contrary to Shariah. One refugee in the camp spoke of encountering Afghans, Pakistanis and Nigerians.
Ramtane Lamamra, the African Union's peace and security commissioner, said the African Union has discussed sending a military force to reunify Mali and that negotiations with terrorists had been ruled out but negotiations with other armed factions is still open.
On 10 December 2012 Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra was arrested by soldiers and taken to a military base in Kati. Hours later, the Prime Minister announced his resignation and the resignation of his government on national television.
On 10 January 2013, Islamist forces captured the strategic town of Konna, located 600 km from the capital, from the Malian army. The following day, the French military launched Opération Serval, intervening in the conflict.
By 8 February, the Islamist-held territory had been re-taken by the Malian military, with help from the international coalition. Tuareg separatists have continued to fight the Islamists as well, although the MNLA has also been accused of carrying out attacks against the Malian military.
A peace deal between the government and Tuareg rebels was signed on 18 June 2013.
Presidential elections were held in Mali on 28 July 2013, with a second round run-off held on 11 August. Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta defeated Soumaïla Cissé in the run-off to become the new President of Mali.
The peace treaty between the Tuareg rebels and Malian Government was broken in late November 2013 because of fighting in the northern city of Kidal.
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Demographics of Mali
This article is about the demographic features of the population of Mali, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
In , Mali's population was an estimated /1e6 round 1 million, with an annual growth rate of 2.7%. This figure can be compared to 4,638,000 in 1950. The population is predominantly rural (68% in 2002), and 5–10% of Malians are nomadic. More than 90% of the population lives in the southern part of the country, especially in Bamako, which has over 1 million residents.
In 2007, about 48% of Malians were less than 15 years old, 49% were 15–64 years old, and 3% were 65 and older. The median age was 15.9 years. The birth rate in 2007 was 49.6 births per 1,000, and the total fertility rate was 7.4 children per woman.
The death rate in 2007 was 16.5 deaths per 1,000. Life expectancy at birth was 49.5 years total (47.6 for males and 51.5 for females). Mali has one of the world's highest rates of infant mortality, with 106 deaths per 1,000 live births.
The proportion of the population aged below 15 in 2010 was 47.2%. 50.6% of the population were aged between 15 and 65 years of age. 2.2% of the population were aged 65 years or older.
Structure of the population (01.04.2009) (Census, Complete tabulation):
Structure of the population (DHS 2012-2013) (Males 27 571, Females 28 264 = 55 836) :
Ethnic groups include: Bambara 33.3%, Fulani (; ) 13.3%, Sarakole 9.8%, Senufo 9.6%, Malinke 8.8%, Dogon 8.7%, Songhai 5.9%, Bobo 2.1%, Tuareg/Bella 1.7%, other Malian 6%, ECOWAS citizens 0.4%, other 0.3% (2018 est.).
Mali's population consists of Sub-Saharan ethnic groups, sharing similar historic, cultural, and religious traditions. Exceptions are two nomadic northern groups, the Tuaregs, a Berber people, and Maurs (or Moors), of Arabo-Berber origins. In Mali and Niger, the Moors are also known as Azawagh Arabs, named after the Azawagh region of the Sahara. Azawagh Arabs speak mainly Hassaniya Arabic which is one of the regional varieties of Arabic.
The Tuaregs traditionally have opposed the central government. Starting in June 1990 in the north, Tuaregs seeking greater autonomy led to clashes with the military. In April 1992, the government and most opposing factions signed a pact to end the fighting and restore stability in the north. Its major aims are to allow greater autonomy to the north and increase government resource allocation to what has been a traditionally impoverished region. The peace agreement was celebrated in 1996 in Timbuktu during an official and highly publicized ceremony called "Flamme de la Paix"--(peace flame).
Historically, interethnic relations throughout the rest of the country were facilitated by easy mobility on the Niger River and across the country's vast savannahs. Each ethnic group was traditionally tied to a specific occupation, all working within proximity to each other, although the distinctions were often blurred.
The Bambara, Malinké, Sarakole, Dogon and Songhay are farmers; the Fula or Fulani, Maur, and Tuareg are herders, while the Bozo are fishers. In recent years this linkage has shifted considerably, as ethnic groups seek nontraditional sources of income.
Mixed European/African descendants of Muslims of Spanish, as well some French, Irish, Italian and Portuguese origins live in Mali, they are known as the Arma people (1% of the nation's population).
Registration of vital events is in Mali not complete. The Population Departement of the United Nations prepared the following estimates.
Births and deaths
Total Fertility Rate (TFR) (Wanted Fertility Rate) and Crude Birth Rate (CBR):
Fertility data as of 2012-2013 (DHS Program):
Mali had an estimated net migration rate of –6.6 migrants per 1,000 people in 2006. About 3 million Malians are believed to reside in Côte d'Ivoire and France. Conversely, according to a 2003 estimate, Mali hosts about 11,000 Mauritanians; most are Fulani herders who routinely engage in cross-border migration. In addition, there are several thousand refugees from Côte d'Ivoire, Sierra Leone, and Liberia in Bamako and other urban areas of Mali.
Demographic statistics according to the World Population Review in 2019.
The following demographic are from the CIA World Factbook unless otherwise indicated.
Muslim 94.8%, Christian 2.4%, Animist 2%, none 0.5%, unspecified 0.3% (2009 est.)
definition: age 15 and over can read and write (2015 est.)
Although each ethnic group speaks a separate language, nearly 80% of Malians communicate over ethnic borders in Bambara, which is the common language of the marketplace. French is the country's official language and is spoken somewhat by 30% of Malians.
An estimated 95% of Malians are Muslim (mostly Sunni), 4% adhere to indigenous or traditional animist beliefs, and 1% are Christian (about two-thirds Roman Catholic and one-third Protestant). Atheism and agnosticism are believed to be rare among Malians, most of whom practice their religion on a daily basis. Islam as practiced in Mali can be moderate, tolerant, and adapted to local conditions; relations between Muslims and practitioners of minority religious faiths are generally amicable. The constitution establishes a secular state and provides for freedom of religion, and the government largely respects this right.
Mali's health and development indicators rank among the worst in the world. In 2000 only 62–65 percent of the population was estimated to have access to safe drinking water and only 69 percent to sanitation services of some kind; only 8 percent was estimated to have access to modern sanitation facilities. Only 20 percent of the nation’s villages and livestock watering holes had modern water facilities.
There were an estimated 140,000 cases of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) reported in 2003, and an estimated 1.9 percent of the adult population was afflicted with HIV/AIDS that year, among the lowest rates in Sub-Saharan Africa (see also HIV/AIDS in Africa). In the same year, there were 12,000 AIDS deaths. The infant mortality rate is 69.5 deaths/1,000 live births (75.3/1,000 among males and 63.5/1,000 among females) (2017 est.). Life expectancy at birth is 60.3 years (58.2 years among males and 62.5 years among females) (2017 est.).
In the 2000–01 school year, the primary school enrollment rate was 61% (71% of males and 51% of females). The primary school completion rate is also low: only 36 percent of students in 2003 (and lower for females). The majority of students reportedly leave school by age 12. In the late 1990s, the secondary school enrollment rate was 15% percent (20% of males and 10% of females).
According to United States government estimates, the adult literacy rate (defined as those over age 15 who can read and write) was 46.4 percent for the total population in 2003 (53.5 percent for males and 39.6 percent for females). According to United Nations sources, however, the literacy rate is actually much lower—only 27–30 percent overall and as low as 12 percent for females, among the lowest rates in Africa.
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Economy of Mali
The economy of Mali is based to a large extent upon agriculture, with a mostly rural population engaged in subsistence agriculture.
Mali is among the ten poorest nations of the world, is one of the 37 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries, and is a major recipient of foreign aid from many sources, including multilateral organizations (most significantly the World Bank, African Development Bank, and Arab Funds), and bilateral programs funded by the European Union, France, United States, Canada, Netherlands, and Germany. Before 1991, the former Soviet Union, China and the Warsaw Pact countries had been a major source of economic and military aid.
The per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of Mali was $820 in 1999. Mali's great potential wealth lies in mining and the production of agricultural commodities, livestock, and fish. The most productive agricultural area lies along the banks of the Niger River, the Inner Niger Delta and the southwestern region around Sikasso.
This is a chart of trend of gross domestic product of Mali at market prices estimated by the International Monetary Fund with figures in millions of CFA Francs.
Current GDP per capita of Mali registered a peak growth of 295% in the 1970s. But this proved unsustainable and growth consequently scaled back to just 5.20% in the 1980s, followed by growth of 24% in the 1990s.
The mean wage was equivalent to $0.65 per hour in 2009.
Agricultural activities occupy 70% of Mali's labor force and provide 42% of the GDP. Cotton and livestock make up 75%–80% of Mali's annual exports. Small-scale traditional farming dominates the agricultural sector, with subsistence farming (of cereals, primarily sorghum, pearl millet, and maize) on about 90% of the under cultivation.
The most productive agricultural area lies along the banks of the Niger River between Bamako and Mopti and extends south to the borders of Guinea, Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso. Average rainfall varies in this region from per year around Mopti to in the south near Sikasso. This area is most important for the production of cotton, rice, pearl millet, maize, vegetables, tobacco and tree crops.
Annual rainfall, critical for Mali's agriculture, has been at or above average since 1993. Cereal production, including rice, has grown annually, and the 1997–98 cotton harvest reached a record 500,000 tons.
Until the mid-1960s, Mali was self-sufficient in grains — pearl millet, sorghum, rice and maize. Diminished harvests during bad years, a growing population, changing dietary habits, and, most importantly, policy constraints on agricultural production resulted in grain deficits almost every year from 1965 to 1986.
Production has rebounded since 1987 due to agricultural policy reforms undertaken by the government and supported by the Western donor nations. Liberalization of producer prices and an open cereals market have created incentives to production. These reforms, combined with adequate rainfall, successful integrated rural agriculture programs in the south, and improved management of the Office du Niger, have led to surplus cereal production over the past five years.
Rice is grown extensively along the banks of the Niger between Ségou and Mopti, with the most important rice-producing area at the Office du Niger, located north of Ségou toward the Mauritanian border. Using water diverted from the Niger, the Office du Niger irrigates about of land for rice and sugarcane production. About one-third of Mali's paddy rice is produced at the Office du Niger.
Sorghum is planted extensively in the drier parts of the country and along the banks of the Niger in eastern Mali, as well as in the lake beds in the Niger delta region. During the wet season, farmers near the town of Dire have cultivated wheat on irrigated fields for hundreds of years. Peanuts are grown throughout the country but are concentrated in the area around Kita, west of Bamako.
Mali's resource in livestock consists of millions of cattle, sheep, and goats. Approximately 40% of Mali's herds were lost during the great drought in 1972–74. The level was gradually restored, but the herds were again decimated in the 1983–85 drought. The overall size of Mali's herds is not expected to reach pre-drought levels in the north of the country, where encroachment of the desert has forced many nomadic herders to abandon pastoral activities and turn instead to farming.
The largest concentrations of cattle are in the areas north of Bamako and Ségou extending into the Niger delta, but herding activity is gradually shifting southward, due to the effects of previous droughts. Sheep, goats, and camels are raised to the exclusion of cattle in the dry areas north and east of Timbuktu.
The Niger River is also an important source of fish, providing food for riverside communities; the surplus—smoked, salted, and dried—is exported. Due to drought and diversion of river water for agriculture, fish production has steadily declined since the early 1980s.
Mining has long been an important aspect of the Malian economy. Gold, largest source of Malian exports, is still mined in the southern region: at the end of the 20th century Mali had the third highest gold production in Africa (after South Africa and Ghana). These goldfields, the largest of which lie in the Bambouk Mountains in western Mali (Kenieba Cercle), were a major source of wealth and trade as far back as the Ghana Empire.
Salt mining in the far north, especially in the Saharan oases of Taoudenni and Taghaza have been a crucial part of the Malian economy for at least seven hundred years. Both resources were vital components of the Trans-Saharan trade, stretching back to the time of the Roman Empire.
From the 1960s to the 1990s state owned mining—especially for gold—expanded, followed by a period of expansion by international contract mining.
In 1991, following the lead of the International Development Association, Mali relaxed the enforcement of mining codes which led to greater foreign investment in the mining industry. From 1994 to 2007, national and foreign companies were granted around 150 operating licences along with more than 25 certificates for exploitation and more than 200 research permits. Gold mining in Mali has increased dramatically, with more than 50 tonnes in 2007 from less than half a tonne produced annually at the end of the 1980s. Mining revenue totaled some 300 billion CFA francs in 2007 more than a thirty times increase from the 1995 total national mining revenue of less than 10 billion CFA. Government revenues from mining contracts, less than 1% of the state income in 1989 were almost 18% in 2007.
Mali is also endowed with renewable energy resources. The country will be among potential winners after the global transition to renewable energy is finished; it is ranked no. 11 out of 156 nations in the index of geopolitical gains and losses after energy transition (GeGaLo Index).
Gold accounted for some 80% of mining activity in the mid-2000s, while there remain considerable proven reserves of other minerals not currently exploited. Gold has become Mali's largest export, after cotton—historically the basis of Mali's export industry—and livestock. The emergence of gold as Mali's leading export product since 1999 has helped mitigate some of the negative impacts caused by fluctuations in world cotton markets and loss of trade from the Ivorian Civil War to the south. Large private investments in gold mining include Anglogold-Ashanti ($250 million) in Sadiola and Yatela, and Randgold Resources ($140 million) in Morila – both multinational South African companies located respectively in the north-western and southern parts of the country.
While great incomes are produced, most staff employed in the mining industries are from outside Mali, and residents in the areas of intensive mining complain of little benefit from the industry. Populations complain of displacement for the construction of mines: at Sadiola Gold Mine, 43 villages have lost some land to the mine there, while in Fourou, near the large Syama goldmines, 121 villages saw some displacement.
In addition, the continued exploitation of unregulated small scale mining, often by child laborers, supplies a large international gold market in Bamako which feeds into international production. Recent criticism has surfaced around the working conditions, pay, and the widespread use of child labor in these small gold mines (as reported recently in the U.S. Department of Labor's "List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor"), and the method with which middlemen, in regional centers like Sikasso and Kayes, purchase and transport gold. Gold collected in the towns is sold on—with almost no regulation or oversight—to larger merchant houses in Bamako or Conakry, and eventually to smelters in Europe. Ecological factors, especially pollution of water by mine tailings, is a major source of concern.
Other mining operations include kaolin, salt, phosphate, and limestone. The government is trying to generate interest in the potential of extracting petroleum from the Taoudeni basin.
During the colonial period, private capital investment was virtually nonexistent, and public investment was devoted largely to the Office du Niger irrigation scheme and to administrative expenses. Following independence, Mali built some light industries with the help of various donors. Manufacturing, consisting principally of processed agricultural products, accounted for about 8% of the GDP in 1990.
Between 1992 and 1995, Mali implemented an economic adjustment program that resulted in economic growth and a reduction in financial imbalances. This was reflected in the increased GDP growth rates (9.6% in 2002) and decreased inflation. GDP in 2002 amounted to US$3.2 billion, made up of agriculture 37.8%, industry 26.4% and services 35.9%.
Effective implementation of macroeconomic stabilization and economic liberalization policies and the stable political situation resulted in good economic performance and enabled Mali to strengthen the foundations for a market-oriented economy and encourage private sector development, backed up by significant progress in implementing the country's privatization program. Agricultural reform measures were aimed at diversifying and expanding production as well as at reducing costs.
Mali's economic performance is fragile, characterized by a vulnerability to climatic conditions, fluctuating terms of trade, dependence on ports in neighboring countries.
Mali produces cotton, cereals and rice. Although locally produced rice now provides competition to imported Asian rice, Mali's primary export is cotton. Livestock exports and industry (producing vegetable and cottonseed oils, and textiles) have experienced growth. Although most of Mali is desert or semi-desert, the Niger River is a potential irrigation source. Exports are in three primary sector products (56% gold, 27% cotton, 5% livestock). Ivory Coast is where most of the country's trade goes through and the crisis previously experienced here had a negative effect on Mali's economy.
The mining industry in Mali has recently attracted renewed interest and investment from foreign companies. Gold and phosphate are the only minerals mined in Mali although deposits of copper and diamonds do also exist. The emergence of gold as Mali's leading export product since 1999 has helped mitigate some of the negative impact of the cotton and Ivory Coast crises.
The development of the oil industry is important due to the country's dependence on the importation of all petroleum products from neighbouring states. Electricity is provided by the parastatal utility, Electricite du Mali.
Mali residents are mostly French speaking. Mali is a major recipient of foreign aid from many sources, including multilateral organizations (most significantly the World Bank, African Development Bank, and Arab Funds), and bilateral programs funded by the European Union, France, United States, Canada, Netherlands, and Germany. Cooperation from Brazil has been growing quickly, especially in cotton production, by means of developing cotton seeds adapted to the Malian soil. Since 2009, Brazilian cooperation in Mali has raised the quality of the cotton fields and their productivity. Brazilian aide has also started since 2019 in cattle raising and the recovery of eroded soils for agriculture. Before 1991, the former Soviet Union had been a major source of economic and military aid, including construction of a cement plant and the Kalana gold mine.
Currently, aid from Russia is restricted mainly to training and provision of spare parts. Chinese aid remains high, and Chinese-Malian joint venture companies have become more numerous in the last 3 years, leading to the opening of a Chinese investment center. The Chinese are major participants in the textile industry and in large scale construction projects, including a bridge across the Niger, a conference center, an expressway in Bamako, and a new national stadium scheduled to be completed for the Africa Cup competition in 2002.
In 1998, U.S. assistance reached over $40 million. This included $39 million in sector support through United States Agency for International Development (USAID) programs, largely channeled to local communities through private voluntary agencies; Peace Corps program budget of $2.2 million for more than 160 Volunteers serving in Mali; Self Help and the Democracy Funds of $170,500; and $650,000 designated for electoral support. Military assistance includes $275,000 for the International Military Education Training (IMET) program, $1.6 million for the African Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI), $60,000 for Joint Combined Exercise Training (JCET), and $100,000 for Humanitarian Assistance.
GDP:
purchasing power parity – $41.22 billion (2017 est.)
GDP – real growth rate:
5.4% (2017 est.)
GDP – per capita:
purchasing power parity – $2,200 (2017 est.)
GDP – composition by sector:
"agriculture:"
41.8% (2017 est.)
"industry:"
18.1% (2017 est.)
"services:"
40.5% (2017 est.)
Population below poverty line:
36.1% (2005 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
"lowest 10%:"
2.4% (2001 est.)
"highest 10%:"
30.2% (2001 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
1.8% (2017 est.)
Labor force:
6.447 million (2017 est.)
Labor force – by occupation:
agriculture and fishing: 80% (2005 est.)
industry and services: 20% (2005 est.)
Unemployment rate:
12%
Budget:
"revenues:"
3.075 billion (2017 est.)
"expenditures:"
3.513 billion (2017 est.)
Industries:
food processing; construction; phosphate and gold mining
Industrial production growth rate:
6.3% (2017 est.)
Electricity – production:
2.489 billion kWh (2016 est.)
Electricity – production by source:
"fossil fuel:"
68%
"hydro:"
31%
"nuclear:"
0%
"other:"
1% (2017 est.)
Electricity – consumption:
2.982 billion kWh (2016 est.)
Electricity – exports:
0 kWh (2016 est.)
Electricity – imports:
800 million kWh (2016 est.)
Agriculture – products:
cotton, pearl millet, rice, corn, maize, vegetables, peanuts; cattle, sheep, goats
Exports:
$3.06 billion (2017 est.)
Exports – commodities:
cotton 50%, gold, livestock
Exports – partners:
Switzerland 31.8%, UAE 15.4%, Burkina Faso 7.8%, Cote dIvoire 7.3%, South Africa 5%, Bangladesh 4.6% (2017)
Imports:
$3.644 billion (2017 est.)
Imports – commodities:
petroleum, machinery and equipment, construction materials, foodstuffs, textiles
Imports – partners:
Senegal 24.4%, China 13.2%, Cote dIvoire 9%, France 7.3% (2017)
Debt – external:
$4.192 billion (31 December 2017 est.)
Economic aid – recipient:
$691.5 million (2005)
Currency:
1 Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (CFAF) = 100 centimes
Exchange rates:
Communaute Financiere Africaine francs (CFAF) per US$1 – 647.25 (January 2000), 615.70 (1999), 589.95 (1998), 583.67 (1997), 511.55 (1996), 499.15 (1995)
"note:"
since 1 January 1999, the CFAF is pegged to the euro at a rate of 655.957 CFA francs per euro
Fiscal year:
calendar year
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Telecommunications in Mali
Mali, a large, landlocked, multicultural country in West Africa, consistently ranks low in the Human Development Index. The infrastructure of communications in Mali, while underdeveloped, is crucial to the nation.
Prior to the 19th century, the area which became Mali was crisscrossed by trade and communication links, the most important being the Niger River, and important southern terminals of the Trans-Saharan trade routes. Only the most basic infrastructure (notably the Dakar-Niger Railway) was constructed during the period of French colonialism. During the first two decades of independence, Mali received major technical and financial support from the former Soviet Union, China, and their allies, especially in the area of radio and television broadcasting.
Since the 1980s, the government has instituted major infrastructural drives, primarily funded by European government partners, to improve and expand communications. Cellular phone usage, due to the vast and sparsely populated distances in the north and west, has grown tremendously since the 1990s.
Internet connectivity, very low by developed world standards, has been the focus of decentralised commune based development projects since the year 2000, while the government participates in the UN's Global Alliance for ICT and Development and the Connect Africa projects to further computer and internet availability in the country.
There are some 112,000 (2012) fixed line telephone lines in Mali, far outstripped by 14.613 million (2012) mobile cellular phone lines.
There are two major mobile telephone operators, Ikatel (a subsidiary of Sonatel, of Senegal) and Malitel (a subsidiary of SOTELMA, the state owned telecommunications company).
In June 2003, legislation passed allowing other private telecommunications operators to enter the market.
Telephone system:
domestic system unreliable but improving; provides only minimal service
"domestic:"
network consists of microwave radio relay, open wire, and radiotelephone communications stations; expansion of microwave radio relay in progress
"international:"
satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (1 Atlantic Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean)
Radio broadcast stations:
Government funded: AM 1, shortwave 1.
Mali has since 1994 when law allowed for private (as in non-state) radios to begin operating. Foreign funding, and some commercial funding (mostly in the capital) have helped to established 160 FM stations in Mali, though many of those are small community "suitcase radio stations". Private radio are required to be members of URTEL, the radio union https://web.archive.org/web/20070312082256/http://urtel.radio.org.ml/.
The state-operated radio is ORTM (office de Radiodiffusion au Television de Mali), which operates 2 FM stations and 1 television station, with repeaters throughout the country.
"note:"
The shortwave station in Bamako has seven frequencies and five transmitters and relays broadcasts for China Radio International (2001)
Radios:
570,000 (1997)
Television broadcast stations:
1 (plus repeaters) (2001)
Televisions:
45,000 (1997)
Top-level domain: .ml
Internet users:
414,985 users or 2.9% of the population (2011). Internet usage is low by international standards, ranked 123 of 125 by the UN in 2002.
Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
13 (2001).
There are an estimated 25 private internet service providers. Recently an association has been formed called AFIM (Association de Fournisseurs de l'Internet au Mali), which is intended to represent these providers.
SOTELMA the state telecom, provides X.25 and dial-up telephone services. Many operators offer dial-up internet service, and wireless internet services. Most ISPs are small Bamako based providers with a VSAT connection, a cyber cafe and use wireless systems (Alviron, 802.11a,b, g, Motorola) to share their service with their clients. Bamako has at least 21 wireless providers, ranging from small VSAT operators, to sophisticated, multi-access point, full services providers.
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Transport in Mali
Mali's transportation infrastructure is regarded as poor, even by regional standards, and deficiencies have limited economic growth and development. Nevertheless, improvements have been noted in the early 2000s. Most of the transportation in Mali consists of cars, planes, and boats.
Mali has one railroad, including 729 kilometers in Mali, which runs from the port of Koulikoro via Bamako to the border with Senegal and continues on to Dakar. The Bamako-Dakar line, which has been described as dilapidated, was owned by a joint company established by Mali and Senegal in 1995, with the eventual goal of privatization. In 2003 the two countries sold a 25-year concession to run the rail line to a Canadian company, which has pledged to upgrade equipment and infrastructure.
The Malian portion of the railroad carried an estimated 536,000 tons of freight and 778,000 passengers in 1999. The track is in poor condition, and the line is closed frequently during the rainy season. The line is potentially significant because it links landlocked Mali to the port of Dakar, increasingly of interest for Malian exports in the face of the disruption of access to Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, as a result of civil conflict in that country beginning in late 2002. In the early 2000s, there also were plans to construct a new rail line between Bamako and Kouroussa and Kankan in Guinea.
As of 2013, passenger services in Mali were being offered three days between Bamako and Kayes via Kati and Diamou.
Mali had a road network totaling about 18,563 kilometers in 2000, including about 4,450 kilometers of paved roads. Mali's main economic link to the coast is a paved road between Bamako and Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire. The European Development Fund is financing
construction of a road linking Bamako and Dakar, Senegal. The African Development Bank is funding the construction of a road linking Bamako and Kankan in Guinea. There are also plans for a trans-Saharan road linking Mali with Algeria.
In general, road conditions outside of urban areas are hazardous, especially at night. Because of isolation, poor road conditions, and the prevalence of banditry, overland travel to the north of Mali is regarded as especially dangerous. Flying or traveling by boat is reported to be preferable where possible. Many of Mali's major thoroughfares in the north are little more than desert tracks with long isolated stretches.
Because rate of automobile ownership is low, and formal government run public transit is sparse, informal buses and taxis abound in Malian urban centers. Bamako in particular is known for its green and yellow taxi fleet. Other vehicles, including trucks, buses, motorcycles and mini-vans, function as taxis. In recent years small motorcycles, imported from China and most lacking licenses, have come to dominate much of Bamako's traffic. Inexpensive motorbikes are often the only affordable transport in Mali, with Chinese made bikes selling for $700 USD.
While the government formally requires licensing for both motorcycles and their operators, these rules are largely ignored. Some 500,000 motorcycles were estimated to be operating in Mali in 2009, with two thirds of them inexpensive Chinese made cycles, known locally as "Jakarta"s, which boast better fuel economy but fewer safety features than more expensive Japanese or Western brands.
In the 1990s, Bamako banned horse carts, which caused an increase in hand carts on the streets. Recent road construction has included separated lanes for two wheeled (carts, bicycles, motorcycles), four wheeled, and pedestrian traffic.
Motor vehicle accidents are relatively common on Mali's roads. The Malian Equipment and Transport Ministry reported that the first half of 2008 saw 254 deaths and 1,924 injuries on Mali's roads, following on 579 deaths in 2007 and 642 in 2006. The government has pledged 15 billion CFAF in 2009 to fund road safety, and has pledged to create a national road security agency to control highway traffic.
While police control barriers are a common sight on African highways, and while illicit demands for bribes at such stops are common in many countries, the main Malian highway heading south from Bamako to the Burkina Faso border was singled out in late 2008 as the worst in West Africa. A survey by the Observatory of Abnormal Practices (OPA) of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) found the Malian section of this road to have the highest number of police roadblocks with the highest average amount paid in bribes per trip in West Africa. An average of twenty-nine roadblocks, almost 4 for every 100 km, were reported from June to September 2008. The amount paid in bribes in the Mali section (per trip) was CFA F 31,509. Also at Bamako airport is common to ask for CFA 40.000 to be allowed to leave the country. While in other nations the customs officials were responsible for most stops, in Mali, gendarmerie (National paramilitary police) and the Police force were found creating the majority of bribe extorting roadblocks. The number of roadblocks on the Bamako-Burkina highway also increased by 12 per cent during the third quarter of 2008, going from 67 to 75.
Mali has no seaports because it is landlocked, but Koulikoro on the Niger River near Bamako, serves as a principal river port. Traditionally, Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire has been Mali's main seaport, handling as much as 70 percent of Mali's trade (except for gold exports). Mali's export trade suffered when turbulence in Côte d’Ivoire in the early 2000s interrupted that trade route.
Mali has 1,815 kilometers of inland waterways, principally the Niger River, some portions of which are navigable for medium and large shipping during the rainy season (June/July–November/December) in years of normal rainfall. Parts of the Senegal River also are navigable, providing year-round access to the Atlantic from Kayes to St. Louis in Senegal.
In 2007 Mali reportedly had 29 airports, 8 of which had paved runways. The main airport is Senou International Airport in Bamako, which offers flights to neighboring countries and to Europe. As part of infrastructure improvements in 2002, the runway at Bamako was extended, and new airstrips were built in previously isolated areas of the west—Kayes, Mopti, and Sikasso. Intercontinental services from Bamako are provided by Air France and a Belgian airline, among others.
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Malian Armed Forces
The Malian Armed Forces () consists of the Army (), Republic of Mali Air Force (), and National Guard (). They number some 7,000 and are under the control of the Minister of Armed Forces and Veterans. The Library of Congress as of January 2005 stated that "[t]he military is underpaid, poorly equipped, and in need of rationalization. Its organisation has suffered from the incorporation of Tuareg irregular forces into the regular military following a 1992 agreement between the government and Tuareg rebel forces."
In 2009, the IISS Military Balance listed 7,350 soldiers in the Army, 400 in the Air Force, and 50 in the Navy. The Gendarmerie and local police forces (under the Ministry of Interior and Security) maintain internal security. The IISS listed paramilitary total force as 4,800 personnel: 1,800 in the Gendarmerie (8 companies), 2,000 in the Republican Guard, and 1,000 police officers. A few Malians receive military training in the United States, France, and Germany.
Military expenditures total about 13% of the national budget. Mali is an active contributor to peacekeeping forces in West and Central Africa; the Library of Congress said that in 2004 Mali was participating in United Nations operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC, 28 personnel including 27 observers), Liberia (UNMIL, 252 personnel, including 4 observers), and Sierra Leone (3 observers).
The Malian armed forces were initially formed by Malian conscript and volunteer veterans of the French Armed Forces. In the months preceding the formation of the Malian armed forces, the French Armed Forces withdrew from their bases in Mali. Among the last bases to be closed were those at Kati, on 8 June 1961, Tessalit (une "base aérienne secondaire"), on 8 July 1961, Gao ("base aérienne 163 de Gao"), on 2 August 1961, and Air Base 162 at Bamako ("base aérienne 162 de Bamako"), on 5 September 1961.
"On 1 October 1960, the Malian army was created and solemnly installed through a speech by Chief of Staff Captain Sekou Traore. On 12 October the same year, the population of Bamako attended for the first time an army parade under the command of Captain Tiemoko Konate. Organizationally, says Sega Sissoko, is the only battalion of Ségou and includes units scattered across the territory. A memo from the Chief of Staff ordered a realignment of the battalion. Following on, a command and services detachment in Bamako was created, and the engineer company in Ségou, the first Saharan motorized company of Gao, the Saharan Motor Company of Kidal, the Arouane nomad group, nomadic group of Timetrine (in the commune of Timtaghène), the 1st Reconnaissance Company and Nioro 2nd Reconnaissance Company Tessalit. As of January 16, 1961, Mali's army totaled 1232 men."
In the sixties and seventies, Mali's army and air force relied primarily on the Soviet Union for materiel and training.
On 19 November 1968, a group of young Malian officers staged a bloodless coup and set up a 14-member military junta, with Lieutenant Moussa Traoré as president. The military leaders attempted to pursue economic reforms, but for several years faced debilitating internal political struggles and the disastrous Sahelian drought. A new constitution, approved in 1974, created a one-party state and was designed to move Mali toward civilian rule. The military leaders remained in power.
Single-party presidential and legislative elections were held in June 1979, and General Moussa Traoré received 99% of the votes. His efforts at consolidating the single-party government were challenged in 1980 by student-led anti-government demonstrations, which were brutally put down, and by three coup attempts. The Traore government ruled throughout the 1970s and 1980s. On 26 March 1991, after four days of intense anti-government rioting, a group of 17 military officers, led by current President Amadou Toumani Touré, arrested President Traoré and suspended the constitution. They formed a civilian-heavy provisional ruling body, and initiated a process that led to democratic elections.
The Tuareg rebellion began in 1990 when Tuareg separatists attacked government buildings around Gao. The armed forces' reprisals led to a full-blown rebellion in which the absence of opportunities for Tuareg in the army was a major complaint. The conflict died down after Alpha Konaré formed a new government and made reparations in 1992. Also, Mali created a new self-governing region, the Kidal Region, and provided for greater Tuareg integration into Malian society. In 1994, Tuareg, reputed to have been trained and armed by Libya, attacked Gao, which again led to major Malian Army reprisals and to the creation of the Ghanda Koi Songhai militia to combat the Tuareg. Mali effectively fell into civil war.
As of June 2008, service commanders were Colonel Boubacar Togola (Armée de Terre), Colonel Waly Sissoko (Armée de l'Air), Lieutenant-Colonel Daouda Sogoba (Garde Nationale) et du Colonel Adama Dembélé (Gendarmerie Nationale).
The Malian army largely collapsed during the war against Tuareg separatists and Islamist rebels in early 2012. In a span of less than fourth months at the start of 2012, the Malian army was defeated by the rebels who seized more than 60% of the former Malian territory, taking all camps and position of the army, capturing and killing hundreds of Malian soldiers, while hundred others deserted or defected.
Following the rebel advance, a group of soldiers from the Kati camp near Bamako staged a coup on 22 March 2012 which overthrew Malian president Amadou Toumani Touré. After the junta seized power, they successfully repelled a counter coup on 30 April by loyalists from the red berets elite units.
The Malian military was rebuilt by French forces, and is now capable of conducting counter terrorism operations. In February 2020, the army stated that up to 200 Malian troops arrived in Kidal, a Northern city. This was the first time the army was deployed in this area because of the Tuareg Separatists rebels that chased out the army since 2014.
Manpower is provided by two-year selective conscription. Mali apparently has six military regions, according to Jane's World Armies. The 1st Military Region and 13th Combined Arms Regiment may be in Gao. The 3rd Military Region appears to be at Kati. The 4th Military Region is at Kayes and the 5th Military Region is at Timbuktu.
The 512 Regiment was reported within the 5th Military Region in 2004.
In 2010 Agence France-Presse reported that French training would be given to the 62nd Motorized Infantry Regiment of the 6th Military Region, based at Sévaré. The same story said that the regiment consisted of three Rapid Intervention Companies (CIR) and AFP said it was "considered the elite...of the Malian army."
Mali is one of four Saharan states which has created a Joint Military Staff Committee, to be based at Tamanrasset in southern Algeria. Algeria, Mauritania, Niger, and Mali will take part.
The Army controls the small navy (approx. 130 sailors and 3 river patrol boats).
Sources: Mali Actu 17 February 2012: Liste des généraux du Mali sous ATT : À quoi servaient-ils ? Quel sera leur sort ? and Le Monde-Duniya du 12 avril 2012: Les Generaux du MALI
The Malian armed forces have at least two significant training establishments:
The Alioune Bloundin Beye school is the tactical-level component of a trio of three ECOWAS peacekeeping training schools: the Alioune Bloundin Beye school (EMPABB), the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in Accra, Ghana (operational level), and the Nigerian National Defence College (strategic level). The school has trained over 6900 students since its opening and is currently supported financially and technically by seven countries and as well as the ECOWAS.
The Mali Air Force ("Armée de l'air du Mali") was founded in 1961 with French supplied military aid. This included MH.1521 Broussard utility monoplane followed by two C-47 transports until Soviet aid starting in 1962 with four Antonov AN-2 Colt biplane transports and four Mi-4 light helicopters. It used to operate MiG jets but is currently equipped with cargo aircraft, light attack aircraft and helicopters.
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Foreign relations of Mali
Following independence in 1960, Mali initially followed a socialist path and was aligned ideologically with the communist bloc. Mali's foreign policy orientation became increasingly pragmatic and pro-Western over time. Since the institution of a democratic form of government in 1992, Mali's relations with the West in general and the United States in particular have improved significantly. U.S.-Malian relations are described by the U.S. Department of State as "excellent and expanding," especially given Mali's recent record of democratic stability in the volatile area of West Africa and its avowed support of the war on terrorism. Mali is reported to be one of the largest recipients of U.S. aid in Africa.
Mali is active in regional organizations such as the African Union. Working to control and resolve regional conflicts, such as in Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, is one of Mali's major foreign policy goals. Mali feels threatened by the potential for the spillover of conflicts in neighboring states, and relations with those neighbors are often uneasy. General insecurity along borders in the north, including cross-border banditry and terrorism, remain troubling issues in regional regions.
Although Azawad, a region spanning the expansive north of Mali, was proclaimed independent in April 2012 by Tuareg rebels, Mali has not recognised the "de facto" state. Britain has closed its embassy; ECOWAS has declared an embargo against Mali, aiming to squeeze out Malinese oil supplies; closed Mali's assets in the ECOWAS regional bank and has prepared a potential intervention force of 3,000 troops. France has declared it will assist in a potential intervention.
Mali is a member of the United Nations (and many of its specialized agencies), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the International Labour Organization (ILO), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and the International Criminal Court (ICC). It also belongs to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU); Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC); Non-Aligned Movement (NAM); an associate member of the European Community (EC); and African Development Bank (ADB).
Mali is active in regional organizations. It participates in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the West African Economic Monetary Union (UEMOA) for regional economic integration; Liptako-Gourma Authority, which seeks to develop the contiguous areas of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso; the Niger River Commission; the Permanent Interstate Committee for drought control in the Sahel (CILSS); and the Senegal River Valley Development Organization (OMVS).
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Malta
Malta (, ; ), officially known as the Republic of Malta () and formerly Melita, is a Southern European island country consisting of an archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. It lies south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. With a population of about 475,000 over an area of , Malta is the world's tenth smallest country in area and fifth most densely populated sovereign country. Its capital is Valletta, which is the smallest national capital in the European Union by area at . The official and national language is Maltese, which is descended from Sicilian Arabic that developed during the Emirate of Sicily, while English serves as the second official language.
Malta has been inhabited since approximately 5900 BC. Its location in the centre of the Mediterranean has historically given it great strategic importance as a naval base, with a succession of powers having contested and ruled the islands, including the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, Romans, Greeks, Arabs, Normans, Aragonese, Knights of St. John, French, and British. Most of these foreign influences have left some sort of mark on the country's ancient culture.
Malta became a British colony in 1813, serving as a way station for ships and the headquarters for the British Mediterranean Fleet. It was besieged by the Axis powers during World War II and was an important Allied base for operations in North Africa and the Mediterranean.
The British Parliament passed the Malta Independence Act in 1964, giving Malta independence from the United Kingdom as the State of Malta, with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state and queen. The country became a republic in 1974. It has been a member state of the Commonwealth of Nations and the United Nations since independence, and joined the European Union in 2004; it became part of the eurozone monetary union in 2008.
Malta has had Christians since the time of Early Christianity, though was predominantly Muslim while under Arab rule, who tolerated Christians. Norman rulers expelled all Muslims who did not convert, and Aragonese rulers expelled unconverted Jews. Today, Catholicism is the state religion, but the Constitution of Malta guarantees freedom of conscience and religious worship.
Malta is a tourist destination with its warm climate, numerous recreational areas, and architectural and historical monuments, including three UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Hypogeum of Ħal Saflieni, Valletta, and seven megalithic temples which are some of the oldest free-standing structures in the world.
The origin of the name "Malta" is uncertain, and the modern-day variation is derived from the Maltese language. The most common etymology is that the word "Malta" is derived from the Greek word , "meli", "honey". The ancient Greeks called the island ("Melitē") meaning "honey-sweet", possibly for Malta's unique production of honey; an endemic subspecies of bees live on the island. The Romans called the island "Melita", which can be considered either a Latinisation of the Greek or the adaptation of the Doric Greek pronunciation of the same word . In 1525 William Tyndale used the transliteration "Melite" in Acts 28:1 for as found in his translation of The New Testament that relied on Greek texts instead of Latin. "Melita" is the spelling used in the Authorized (King James) Version of 1611 and in the American Standard Version of 1901. "Malta" is widely used in more recent versions, such as The Revised Standard Version of 1946 and The New International Version of 1973.
Another conjecture suggests that the word "Malta" comes from the Phoenician word "Maleth", "a haven", or 'port' in reference to Malta's many bays and coves. Few other etymological mentions appear in classical literature, with the term "Malta" appearing in its present form in the "Antonine Itinerary" (Itin. Marit. p. 518; Sil. Ital. xiv. 251).
Malta has been inhabited from around 5900 BC, since the arrival of settlers from the island of Sicily. A significant prehistoric Neolithic culture marked by Megalithic structures, which date back to c. 3600 BC, existed on the islands, as evidenced by the temples of Bugibba, Mnajdra, Ggantija and others. The Phoenicians colonised Malta between 800–700 BC, bringing their Semitic language and culture. They used the islands as an outpost from which they expanded sea explorations and trade in the Mediterranean until their successors, the Carthaginians, were ousted by the Romans in 216 BC with the help of the Maltese inhabitants, under whom Malta became a municipium.
After a probable sack by the Vandals, Malta fell under Byzantine rule (4th to 9th century) and the islands were then invaded by the Aghlabids in AD 870. The fate of the population after the Arab invasion is unclear but it seems the islands may have been repopulated at the beginning of the second millennium by settlers from Arab-ruled Sicily who spoke Siculo-Arabic.
The Muslim rule was ended by the Normans who conquered the island in 1091. The islands were completely re-Christianised by 1249. The islands were part of the Kingdom of Sicily until 1530 and were briefly controlled by the Capetian House of Anjou. In 1530 Charles V of Spain gave the Maltese islands to the Order of Knights of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem in perpetual lease.
The French under Napoleon took hold of the Maltese islands in 1798, although with the aid of the British the Maltese were able to oust French control two years later. The inhabitants subsequently asked Britain to assume sovereignty over the islands under the conditions laid out in a Declaration of Rights, stating that "his Majesty has no right to cede these Islands to any power...if he chooses to withdraw his protection, and abandon his sovereignty, the right of electing another sovereign, or of the governing of these Islands, belongs to us, the inhabitants and aborigines alone, and without control." As part of the Treaty of Paris in 1814, Malta became a British colony, ultimately rejecting an attempted integration with the United Kingdom in 1956.
Malta became independent on 21 September 1964 (Independence Day). Under its 1964 constitution, Malta initially retained Queen Elizabeth II as Queen of Malta, with a Governor-General exercising authority on her behalf. On 13 December 1974 (Republic Day) it became a republic within the Commonwealth, with the President as head of state. On 31 March 1979, Malta saw the withdrawal of the last British troops and the Royal Navy from Malta. This day is known as Freedom Day and Malta declared itself as a neutral and non-aligned state. Malta joined the European Union on 1 May 2004 and joined the Eurozone on 1 January 2008.
Pottery found by archaeologists at the Skorba Temples resembles that found in Italy, and suggests that the Maltese islands were first settled in 5200 BC mainly by Stone Age hunters or farmers who had arrived from the Italian island of Sicily, possibly the Sicani. The extinction of the dwarf hippos and dwarf elephants has been linked to the earliest arrival of humans on Malta. Prehistoric farming settlements dating to the Early Neolithic period were discovered in open areas and also in caves, such as Għar Dalam.
The Sicani were the only tribe known to have inhabited the island at this time and are generally regarded as being closely related to the Iberians. The population on Malta grew cereals, raised livestock and, in common with other ancient Mediterranean cultures, worshiped a fertility figure represented in Maltese prehistoric artifacts exhibiting the proportions seen in similar statuettes, including the Venus of Willendorf.
Pottery from the Għar Dalam phase is similar to pottery found in Agrigento, Sicily. A culture of megalithic temple builders then either supplanted or arose from this early period. Around the time of 3500 BC, these people built some of the oldest existing free-standing structures in the world in the form of the megalithic Ġgantija temples on Gozo; other early temples include those at Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra.
The temples have distinctive architecture, typically a complex trefoil design, and were used from 4000 to 2500 BC. Animal bones and a knife found behind a removable altar stone suggest that temple rituals included animal sacrifice. Tentative information suggests that the sacrifices were made to the goddess of fertility, whose statue is now in the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta. The culture apparently disappeared from the Maltese Islands around 2500 BC. Archaeologists speculate that the temple builders fell victim to famine or disease, but this is not certain.
Another archaeological feature of the Maltese Islands often attributed to these ancient builders is equidistant uniform grooves dubbed "cart tracks" or "cart ruts" which can be found in several locations throughout the islands, with the most prominent being those found in Misraħ Għar il-Kbir, which is informally known as "Clapham Junction". These may have been caused by wooden-wheeled carts eroding soft limestone.
After 2500 BC, the Maltese Islands were depopulated for several decades until the arrival of a new influx of Bronze Age immigrants, a culture that cremated it's dead and introduced smaller megalithic structures called dolmens to Malta. In most cases, there are small chambers here, with the cover made of a large slab placed on upright stones. They are claimed to belong to a population certainly different from that which built the previous megalithic temples. It is presumed the population arrived from Sicily because of the similarity of Maltese dolmens to some small constructions found on the largest island of the Mediterranean sea.
Phoenician traders colonised the islands sometime after 1000 BC as a stop on their trade routes from the eastern Mediterranean to Cornwall, joining the natives on the island. The Phoenicians inhabited the area now known as Mdina, and its surrounding town of Rabat, which they called "Maleth". The Romans, who also much later inhabited Mdina, referred to it (and the island) as "Melita".
After the fall of Phoenicia in 332 BC, the area came under the control of Carthage, a former Phoenician colony. During this time the people on Malta mainly cultivated olives and carob and produced textiles.
During the First Punic War, the island was conquered after harsh fighting by Marcus Atilius Regulus. After the failure of his expedition, the island fell back in the hands of Carthage, only to be conquered again in 218 BC, during the Second Punic War, by Roman Consul Tiberius Sempronius Longus. After that, Malta became "Foederata Civitas", a designation that meant it was exempt from paying tribute or the rule of Roman law, and fell within the jurisdiction of the province of Sicily. Punic influence, however, remained vibrant on the islands with the famous Cippi of Melqart, pivotal in deciphering the Punic language, dedicated in the 2nd century BC. Also the local Roman coinage, which ceased in the 1st century BC, indicates the slow pace of the island's Romanization, since the very last locally minted coins still bear inscriptions in Ancient Greek on the obverse (like "ΜΕΛΙΤΑΙΩ", meaning "of the Maltese") and Punic motifs, showing the resistance of the Greek and Punic cultures.
The Greeks settled in the Maltese islands beginning circa 700 BC, as testified by several architectural remains, and remained throughout the Roman dominium. They called the island Melite (). At around 160 BC coins struck in Malta bore the Greek ‘ΜΕΛΙΤΑΙΩΝ’ (Melitaion) meaning ‘of the Maltese’. By 50 BC Maltese coins had a Greek legend on one side and a Latin one on the other. Later coins were issued with just the Latin legend ‘MELITAS’. The depiction of aspects of the Punic religion, together with the use of the Greek alphabet, testifies to the resilience of Punic and Greek culture in Malta long after the arrival of the Romans.
In the 1st century BC, Roman Senator and orator Cicero commented on the importance of the Temple of Juno, and on the extravagant behaviour of the Roman governor of Sicily, Verres. During the 1st century BC the island was mentioned by Pliny the Elder and Diodorus Siculus: the latter praised its harbours, the wealth of its inhabitants, its lavishly decorated houses and the quality of its textile products. In the 2nd century, Emperor Hadrian (r. 117–38) upgraded the status of Malta to "municipium" or free town: the island local affairs were administered by four "quattuorviri iuri dicundo" and a municipal senate, while a Roman procurator, living in Mdina, represented the proconsul of Sicily. In 58 AD, Paul the Apostle was washed up on the islands together with Luke the Evangelist after their ship was wrecked on the islands. Paul the Apostle remained on the islands three months, preaching the Christian faith. The island is mentioned at the Acts of the Apostles as Melitene ().
In 395, when the Roman Empire was divided for the last time at the death of Theodosius I, Malta, following Sicily, fell under the control of the Western Roman Empire. During the Migration Period as the Western Roman Empire declined, Malta came under attack and was conquered or occupied a number of times. From 454 to 464 the islands were subdued by the Vandals, and after 464 by the Ostrogoths. In 533 Belisarius, on his way to conquer the Vandal Kingdom in North Africa, reunited the islands under Imperial (Eastern) rule. Little is known about the Byzantine rule in Malta: the island depended on the theme of Sicily and had Greek Governors and a small Greek garrison. While the bulk of population continued to be constituted by the old, Latinized dwellers, during this period its religious allegiance oscillated between the Pope and the Patriarch of Constantinople. The Byzantine rule introduced Greek families to the Maltese collective. Malta remained under the Byzantine Empire until 870, when it fell to the Arabs.
Malta became involved in the Arab–Byzantine wars, and the conquest of Malta is closely linked with that of Sicily that began in 827 after Admiral Euphemius' betrayal of his fellow Byzantines, requesting that the Aghlabids invade the island.
The Muslim chronicler and geographer al-Himyari recounts that in 870, following a violent struggle against the defending Byzantines, the Arab invaders, first led by Halaf al-Hadim, and later by Sawada ibn Muhammad, looted and pillaged the island, destroying the most important buildings, and leaving it practically uninhabited until it was recolonised by the Arabs from Sicily in 1048–1049. It is uncertain whether this new settlement took place as a consequence of demographic expansion in Sicily, as a result of a higher standard of living in Sicily (in which case the recolonisation may have taken place a few decades earlier), or as a result of civil war which broke out among the Arab rulers of Sicily in 1038.
The Arab Agricultural Revolution introduced new irrigation, some fruits and cotton, and the Siculo-Arabic language was adopted on the island from Sicily; it would eventually evolve into the Maltese language.
The Christians on the island were allowed to practice their religion if they paid jizya, a tax for non-Muslims for exemption from military service, but non-Muslims were exempt from the tax that Muslims had to pay (zakat).
The Normans attacked Malta in 1091, as part of their conquest of Sicily. The Norman leader, Roger I of Sicily, was welcomed by Christian captives. The notion that Count Roger I reportedly tore off a portion of his checkered red-and-white banner and presented it to the Maltese in gratitude for having fought on his behalf, forming the basis of the modern flag of Malta, is founded in myth.
Malta became part of the newly formed Kingdom of Sicily, which also covered the island of Sicily and the southern half of the Italian Peninsula. The Catholic Church was reinstated as the state religion, with Malta under the See of Palermo, and some Norman architecture sprang up around Malta, especially in its ancient capital Mdina. Tancred, King of Sicily, the second to last Norman monarch, made Malta a fief of the kingdom and installed a Count of Malta in 1192. As the islands were much desired due to their strategic importance, it was during this time that the men of Malta were militarised to fend off attempted conquest; early Counts were skilled Genoese privateers.
The kingdom passed on to the dynasty of Hohenstaufen from 1194 until 1266. During this period, when Frederick II of Hohenstaufen began to reorganise his Sicilian kingdom, Western culture and religion began to exert their influence more intensely. Malta was declared a county and a marquisate, but its trade was totally ruined. For a long time it remained solely a fortified garrison.
A mass expulsion of Arabs occurred in 1224, and the entire Christian male population of Celano in Abruzzo was deported to Malta in the same year. In 1249 Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, decreed that all remaining Muslims be expelled from Malta or impelled to convert.
For a brief period, the kingdom passed to the Capetian House of Anjou, but high taxes made the dynasty unpopular in Malta, due in part to Charles of Anjou's war against the Republic of Genoa, and the island of Gozo was sacked in 1275.
Malta was ruled by the House of Barcelona, the ruling dynasty of the Crown of Aragon, from 1282 to 1409, with the Aragonese aiding the Maltese insurgents in the Sicilian Vespers in a naval battle in Grand Harbour in 1283.
Relatives of the Kings of Aragon ruled the island until 1409 when it formally passed to the Crown of Aragon. Early on in the Aragonese ascendancy, the sons of the monarchs received the title Count of Malta. During this time much of the local nobility was created. By 1397, however, the bearing of the comital title reverted to a feudal basis, with two families fighting over the distinction, which caused some conflict. This led King Martin I of Sicily to abolish the title. The dispute over the title returned when the title was reinstated a few years later and the Maltese, led by the local nobility, rose up against Count Gonsalvo Monroy. Although they opposed the Count, the Maltese voiced their loyalty to the Sicilian Crown, which so impressed King Alfonso that he did not punish the people for their rebellion. Instead, he promised never to grant the title to a third party and incorporated it back into the crown. The city of Mdina was given the title of "Città Notabile" as a result of this sequence of events.
On 23 March 1530, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, gave the islands to the Knights Hospitaller under the leadership of Frenchman Philippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, Grand Master of the Order, in perpetual lease for which they had to pay an annual tribute of one single Maltese Falcon. These knights, a military religious order now known as the Knights of Malta, had been driven out of Rhodes by the Ottoman Empire in 1522.
The Order of Saint John (also known as the Knights Hospitaller, or the Knights of Malta) were the rulers of Malta and Gozo between 1530 and 1798. During this period, the strategic and military importance of the island grew greatly as the small yet efficient fleet of the Order of Saint John launched their attacks from this new base targeting the shipping lanes of the Ottoman territories around the Mediterranean Sea.
In 1551, the population of the island of Gozo (around 5,000 people) were enslaved by Barbary pirates and taken to the Barbary Coast in North Africa.
The knights, led by Frenchman Jean Parisot de Valette, Grand Master of the Order, withstood the Great Siege of Malta by the Ottomans in 1565. The knights, with the help of Spanish and Maltese forces, were victorious and repelled the attack. Speaking of the battle Voltaire said, "Nothing is better known than the siege of Malta." After the siege they decided to increase Malta's fortifications, particularly in the inner-harbour area, where the new city of Valletta, named in honour of Valette, was built. They also established watchtowers along the coasts – the Wignacourt, Lascaris and De Redin towers – named after the Grand Masters who ordered the work. The Knights' presence on the island saw the completion of many architectural and cultural projects, including the embellishment of Città Vittoriosa (modern Birgu), the construction of new cities including Città Rohan (modern Żebbuġ) . Zebbug is one of the oldest cities of Malta, it also has one of the largest squares of Malta.
The Knights' reign ended when Napoleon captured Malta on his way to Egypt during the in 1798. Over the years preceding Napoleon's capture of the islands, the power of the Knights had declined and the Order had become unpopular. Napoleon's fleet arrived in 1798, en route to his expedition of Egypt. As a ruse towards the Knights, Napoleon asked for a safe harbour to resupply his ships, and then turned his guns against his hosts once safely inside Valletta. Grand Master Hompesch capitulated, and Napoleon entered Malta.
During 12–18 June 1798, Napoleon resided at the Palazzo Parisio in Valletta. He reformed national administration with the creation of a Government Commission, twelve municipalities, a public finance administration, the abolition of all feudal rights and privileges, the abolition of slavery and the granting of freedom to all Turkish and Jewish slaves. On the judicial level, a family code was framed and twelve judges were nominated. Public education was organised along principles laid down by Bonaparte himself, providing for primary and secondary education. He then sailed for Egypt leaving a substantial garrison in Malta.
The French forces left behind became unpopular with the Maltese, due particularly to the French forces' hostility towards Catholicism and pillaging of local churches to fund Napoleon's war efforts. French financial and religious policies so angered the Maltese that they rebelled, forcing the French to depart. Great Britain, along with the Kingdom of Naples and the Kingdom of Sicily, sent ammunition and aid to the Maltese and Britain also sent her navy, which blockaded the islands.
General Claude-Henri Belgrand de Vaubois surrendered his French forces in 1800. Maltese leaders presented the island to Sir Alexander Ball, asking that the island become a British Dominion. The Maltese people created a Declaration of Rights in which they agreed to come "under the protection and sovereignty of the King of the free people, His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland". The Declaration also stated that "his Majesty has no right to cede these Islands to any power...if he chooses to withdraw his protection, and abandon his sovereignty, the right of electing another sovereign, or of the governing of these Islands, belongs to us, the inhabitants and aborigines alone, and without control."
In 1814, as part of the Treaty of Paris, Malta officially became a part of the British Empire and was used as a shipping way-station and fleet headquarters. After the Suez Canal opened in 1869, Malta's position halfway between the Strait of Gibraltar and Egypt proved to be its main asset, and it was considered an important stop on the way to India, a central trade route for the British.
A Turkish Military Cemetery was commissioned by Sultan Abdul Aziz and built between 1873-1874 for the fallen Ottoman soldiers of the Great Siege of Malta.
Between 1915 and 1918, during the First World War, Malta became known as "the Nurse of the Mediterranean" due to the large number of wounded soldiers who were accommodated in Malta. In 1919 British troops fired on a rally protesting against new taxes, killing four Maltese men. The event, known as Sette Giugno (Italian for "7 June"), is commemorated every year and is one of five National Days.
Before the Second World War, Valletta was the location of the Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet's headquarters; however, despite Winston Churchill's objections, the command was moved to Alexandria, Egypt, in April 1937 out of fear that it was too susceptible to air attacks from Europe.
During the Second World War, Malta played an important role for the Allies; being a British colony, situated close to Sicily and the Axis shipping lanes, Malta was bombarded by the Italian and German air forces. Malta was used by the British to launch attacks on the Italian navy and had a submarine base. It was also used as a listening post, intercepting German radio messages including Enigma traffic. The bravery of the Maltese people during the second Siege of Malta moved King George VI to award the George Cross to Malta on a collective basis on 15 April 1942 "to bear witness to a heroism and devotion that will long be famous in history". Some historians argue that the award caused Britain to incur disproportionate losses in defending Malta, as British credibility would have suffered if Malta had surrendered, as British forces in Singapore had done. A depiction of the George Cross now appears in the upper hoist corner of the Flag of Malta. The collective award remained unique until April 1999, when the Royal Ulster Constabulary became the secondand, to date, the only otherrecipient of a collective George Cross.
Malta achieved its independence as the State of Malta on 21 September 1964 (Independence Day) after intense negotiations with the United Kingdom, led by Maltese Prime Minister George Borġ Olivier. Under its 1964 constitution, Malta initially retained Queen Elizabeth II as Queen of Malta and thus head of state, with a governor-general exercising executive authority on her behalf. In 1971, the Malta Labour Party led by Dom Mintoff won the general elections, resulting in Malta declaring itself a republic on 13 December 1974 (Republic Day) within the Commonwealth, with the President as head of state. A defence agreement was signed soon after independence, and after being re-negotiated in 1972, expired on 31 March 1979. Upon its expiry, the British base closed down and all lands formerly controlled by the British on the island were given up to the Maltese government.
Malta adopted a policy of neutrality in 1980. In 1989, Malta was the venue of a summit between US President George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, their first face-to-face encounter, which signalled the end of the Cold War.
On 16 July 1990, Malta, through its foreign minister, Guido de Marco, applied to join the European Union. After tough negotiations, a referendum was held on 8 March 2003, which resulted in a favourable vote. General Elections held on 12 April 2003, gave a clear mandate to the Prime Minister, Eddie Fenech Adami, to sign the treaty of accession to the European Union on 16 April 2003 in Athens, Greece.
Malta joined the European Union on 1 May 2004. Following the European Council of 21–22 June 2007, Malta joined the eurozone on 1 January 2008.
Malta is a republic whose parliamentary system and public administration are closely modelled on the Westminster system. Malta had the second-highest voter turnout in the world (and the highest for nations without mandatory voting), based on election turnout in national lower house elections from 1960 to 1995. The unicameral Parliament is made up of the President of Malta and the House of Representatives (). The President of Malta, a largely ceremonial position, is appointed for a five-year term by a resolution of the House of Representatives carried by a simple majority. Members of the House of Representatives are elected by direct universal suffrage through single transferable vote every five years, unless the House is dissolved earlier by the president either on the advice of the prime minister or through the adoption of a motion of no confidence carried within the House of Representatives and not overturned within three days. In either of these cases, the president may alternatively choose to invite another Member of Parliament who invariably should command the majority of the House of Representatives to form an alternative government for the remainder of the legislature.
The House of Representatives is nominally made up of 65 members of parliament whereby 5 members of parliament are elected from each of the thirteen electoral districts. However, where a party wins an absolute majority of votes but does not have a majority of seats, that party is given additional seats to ensure a parliamentary majority. The 80th article of the Constitution of Malta provides that the president appoint as prime minister "... the member of the House of Representatives who, in his judgment, is best able to command the support of a majority of the members of that House".
Maltese politics is a two-party system dominated by the Labour Party (), a centre-left social democratic party, and the Nationalist Party (), a centre-right Christian democratic party. The Labour Party has been the governing party since 2013 and is currently led by Prime Minister Robert Abela, who has been in office since 13 January 2020. The Nationalist Party, with Adrian Delia as its leader, is currently in opposition. Two parliamentary seats are held by independent politicians who were formerly with the Democratic Party (), a centre-left social liberal party which had contested under the Nationalist-led Forza Nazzjonali electoral alliance in 2017. There are a number of small political parties in Malta which have no parliamentary representation.
Until the Second World War, Maltese politics was dominated by the language question fought out by Italophone and Anglophone parties. Post-war politics dealt with constitutional questions on the relations with Britain (first with integration then independence) and, eventually, relations with the European Union.
Malta has had a system of local government since 1993, based on the European Charter of Local Self-Government. The country is divided into five regions (one of them being Gozo), with each region having its own Regional Committee, serving as the intermediate level between local government and national government. The regions are divided into local councils, of which there are currently 68 (54 in Malta and 14 in Gozo). Sixteen "hamlets", which form part of larger councils, have their own Administrative Committee. The six districts (five on Malta and the sixth being Gozo) serve primarily statistical purposes.
Each council is made up of a number of councillors (from 5 to 13, depending on and relative to the population they represent). A mayor and a deputy mayor are elected by and from the councillors. The executive secretary, who is appointed by the council, is the executive, administrative and financial head of the council. Councillors are elected every four years through the single transferable vote. People who are eligible to vote in the election of the Maltese House of Representatives as well as a resident citizens of the EU are eligible to vote. Due to system reforms, no elections were held before 2012. Since then, elections have been held every two years for an alternating half of the councils.
Local councils are responsible for the general upkeep and embellishment of the locality (including repairs to non-arterial roads), allocation of local wardens, and refuse collection; they also carry out general administrative duties for the central government such as the collection of government rents and funds and answer government-related public inquiries. Additionally, a number of individual towns and villages in the Republic of Malta have sister cities.
The objectives of the Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) are to maintain a military organisation with the primary aim of defending the islands' integrity according to the defence roles as set by the government in an efficient and cost-effective manner. This is achieved by emphasising the maintenance of Malta's territorial waters and airspace integrity.
The AFM also engages in combating terrorism, fighting against illicit drug trafficking, conducting anti-illegal immigrant operations and patrols, and anti-illegal fishing operations, operating search and rescue (SAR) services, and physical or electronic security and surveillance of sensitive locations. Malta's search-and-rescue area extends from east of Tunisia to west of Crete, covering an area of around .
As a military organisation, the AFM provides backup support to the Malta Police Force (MPF) and other government departments/agencies in situations as required in an organised, disciplined manner in the event of national emergencies (such as natural disasters) or internal security and bomb disposal.
Malta is an archipelago in the central Mediterranean (in its eastern basin), some from southern Italy across the Malta Channel. Only the three largest islands – Malta (Malta), Gozo (Għawdex) and Comino (Kemmuna) – are inhabited. The islands of the archipelago lie on the Malta plateau, a shallow shelf formed from the high points of a land bridge between Sicily and North Africa that became isolated as sea levels rose after the last Ice Age. The archipelago is located on the African tectonic plate.
Malta was considered an island of North Africa for centuries.
Numerous bays along the indented coastline of the islands provide good harbours. The landscape consists of low hills with terraced fields. The highest point in Malta is Ta' Dmejrek, at , near Dingli. Although there are some small rivers at times of high rainfall, there are no permanent rivers or lakes on Malta. However, some watercourses have fresh water running all year round at Baħrija near Ras ir-Raħeb, at l-Imtaħleb and San Martin, and at Lunzjata Valley in Gozo.
Phytogeographically, Malta belongs to the Liguro-Tyrrhenian province of the Mediterranean Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the WWF, the territory of Malta belongs to the ecoregion of "Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands and Scrub".
The minor islands that form part of the archipelago are uninhabited and include:
Malta has a Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification "Csa"), with mild winters and hot summers, hotter in the inland areas. Rain occurs mainly in autumn and winter, with summer being generally dry.
The average yearly temperature is around during the day and at night. In the coldest month – January – the typical maximum temperature ranges from during the day and minimum at night. In the warmest month – August – the typical maximum temperature ranges from during the day and minimum at night. Amongst all capitals in the continent of Europe, Valletta – the capital of Malta has the warmest winters, with average temperatures of around during the day and at night in the period January–February. In March and December average temperatures are around during the day and at night. Large fluctuations in temperature are rare. Snow is very rare on the island, although various snowfalls have been recorded in the last century, the last one reported in various locations across Malta in 2014.
The average annual sea temperature is , from in February to in August. In the 6 months – from June to November – the average sea temperature exceeds .
The annual average relative humidity is high, averaging 75%, ranging from 65% in July (morning: 78% evening: 53%) to 80% in December (morning: 83% evening: 73%).
Sunshine duration hours total around 3,000 per year, from an average 5.2 hours of sunshine duration per day in December to an average above 12 hours in July. This is about double that of cities in the northern half of Europe, for comparison: London – 1,461; however, in winter it has up to four times more sunshine; for comparison: in December, London has 37 hours of sunshine whereas Malta has above 160.
According to Eurostat, Malta is composed of two larger urban zones nominally referred to as "Valletta" (the main island of Malta) and "Gozo". The main urban area covers the entire main island, with a population of around 400,000. The core of the urban area, the "greater city" of Valletta, has a population of 205,768. According to Demographia, the Valletta urban area has a population of 300,000. According to European Spatial Planning Observation Network, Malta is identified as functional urban area (FUA) with the population of 355,000. According to the United Nations, about 95 per cent of the area of Malta is urban and the number grows every year. Also, according to the results of ESPON and EU Commission studies, ""the whole territory of Malta constitutes a single urban region"".
Occasionally in books, government publications and documents, and in some international institutions, Malta is referred to as a city-state. Sometimes Malta is listed in rankings concerning cities or metropolitan areas. Also, the Maltese coat-of-arms bears a mural crown described as "representing the fortifications of Malta and denoting a City State". Malta, with area of and population of 0.4 million, is one of the most densely populated countries worldwide.
The Maltese islands are home to a wide diversity of indigenous, sub-endemic and endemic plants. They feature many traits typical of a Mediterranean climate, such as drought resistance. The most common indigenous trees on the islands are olive ("Olea europaea"), carob ("Ceratonia siliqua"), fig ("ficus carica"), holm oak ("Quericus ilex") and Aleppo pine ("Pinus halpensis"), while the most common non-native trees are eucalyptus, acacia and opuntia. Endemic plants include the national flower "widnet il-baħar" ("Cheirolophus crassifolius), sempreviva ta' Malta (Helichrysum melitense)," "żigland t' Għawdex (Hyoseris frutescens") and "ġiżi ta' Malta" ("Matthiola incana subsp. melitensis") while sub-endemics include "kromb il-baħar" ("Jacobaea maritima subsp. sicula") and "xkattapietra" ("Micromeria microphylla"). The flora and biodiversity of Malta is severely endangered by habitat loss, invasive species and human intervention.
Malta is classified as an advanced economy together with 32 other countries according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Until 1800, Malta depended on cotton, tobacco and its shipyards for exports. Once under British control, they came to depend on Malta Dockyard for support of the Royal Navy, especially during the Crimean War of 1854. The military base benefited craftsmen and all those who served the military.
In 1869, the opening of the Suez Canal gave Malta's economy a great boost, as there was a massive increase in the shipping which entered the port. Ships stopping at Malta's docks for refuelling helped the Entrepôt trade, which brought additional benefits to the island. However, towards the end of the 19th century, the economy began declining, and by the 1940s Malta's economy was in serious crisis. One factor was the longer range of newer merchant ships that required fewer refuelling stops.
Currently, Malta's major resources are limestone, a favourable geographic location and a productive labour force. Malta produces only about 20 percent of its food needs, has limited fresh water supplies because of the drought in the summer, and has no domestic energy sources, aside from the potential for solar energy from its plentiful sunlight. The economy is dependent on foreign trade (serving as a freight trans-shipment point), manufacturing (especially electronics and textiles), and tourism.
Access to biocapacity in Malta is below the world average. In 2016, Malta had 0.6 global hectares of biocapacity per person within its territory, contrasted with a global average of 1.6 hectares per person. Additionally, residents of Malta exhibited an ecological footprint of consumption of 5.8 global hectares of biocapacity per person, resulting in a sizable biocapacity deficit.
Film production has contributed to the Maltese economy. The film "Sons of the Sea" was the first shot in Malta, in 1925; by 2016, over 100 feature films had been entirely or partially filmed in the country since. Malta has served as a "double" for a wide variety of locations and historic periods including Ancient Greece, Ancient and modern Rome, Iraq, the Middle East and many more. The Maltese government introduced financial incentives for filmmakers in 2005. The current financial incentives to foreign productions as of 2015 stand at 25 per cent with an additional 2 per cent if Malta stands in as Malta; meaning a production can get up to 27 per cent back on their eligible spending incurred in Malta.
In preparation for Malta's membership in the European Union, which it joined on 1 May 2004, it privatised some state-controlled firms and liberalised markets. For example, the government announced on 8 January 2007 that it was selling its 40 per cent stake in MaltaPost, to complete a privatisation process which had been ongoing for the previous five years. From 2000 to 2010, Malta privatised telecommunications, postal services, shipyards and Malta International Airport.
Malta has a financial regulator, the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA), with a strong business development mindset, and the country has been successful in attracting gaming businesses, aircraft and ship registration, credit-card issuing banking licences and also fund administration. Service providers to these industries, including fiduciary and trustee business, are a core part of the growth strategy of the island. Malta has made strong headway in implementing EU Financial Services Directives including UCITs IV and soon AIFMD. As a base for alternative asset managers who must comply with new directives, Malta has attracted a number of key players including IDS, Iconic Funds, Apex Fund Services and TMF/Customs House.
Malta and Tunisia are currently discussing the commercial exploitation of the continental shelf between their countries, particularly for petroleum exploration. These discussions are also undergoing between Malta and Libya for similar arrangements.
As of 2015, Malta did not have a property tax. Its property market, especially around the harbour area, was booming, with the prices of apartments in some towns like St Julian's, Sliema and Gzira skyrocketing.
According to Eurostat data, Maltese GDP per capita stood at 88 per cent of the EU average in 2015 with €21,000.
The National Development and Social Fund from the Individual Investor Programme, a citizenship by investment programme also known as the "citizenship scheme", has become a significant income sources for the government of Malta, adding 432,000,000 euro to the budget in 2018.
The two largest commercial banks are Bank of Valletta and HSBC Bank Malta, both of which can trace their origins back to the 19th century. As of recently, digital banks such as Revolut have also increased in popularity.
The Central Bank of Malta (Bank Ċentrali ta' Malta) has two key areas of responsibility: the formulation and implementation of monetary policy and the promotion of a sound and efficient financial system. It was established by the Central Bank of Malta Act on 17 April 1968. The Maltese government entered ERM II on 4 May 2005, and adopted the euro as the country's currency on 1 January 2008.
FinanceMalta is the quasi-governmental organisation tasked with marketing and educating business leaders in coming to Malta and runs seminars and events around the world highlighting the emerging strength of Malta as a jurisdiction for banking and finance and insurance.
Traffic in Malta drives on the left. Car ownership in Malta is exceedingly high, considering the very small size of the islands; it is the fourth-highest in the European Union. The number of registered cars in 1990 amounted to 182,254, giving an automobile density of .
Malta has of road, (87.5 per cent) of which are paved and were unpaved (as of December 2003).
The main roads of Malta from the southernmost point to the northernmost point are these: Triq Birżebbuġa in Birżebbuġa, Għar Dalam Road and Tal-Barrani Road in Żejtun, Santa Luċija Avenue in Paola, Aldo Moro Street (Trunk Road), 13 December Street and Ħamrun-Marsa Bypass in Marsa, Regional Road in Santa Venera/Msida/Gżira/San Ġwann, St Andrew's Road in Swieqi/Pembroke, Malta, Coast Road in Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq, Salina Road, Kennedy Drive, St. Paul's Bypass and Xemxija Hill in San Pawl il-Baħar, Mistra Hill, Wettinger Street (Mellieħa Bypass) and Marfa Road in Mellieħa.
Buses ("xarabank" or "karozza tal-linja") are the primary method of public transport, established in 1905. Malta's vintage buses operated in the Maltese islands up to 2011 and became popular tourist attractions in their own right. To this day they are depicted on many Maltese advertisements to promote tourism as well as on gifts and merchandise for tourists.
The bus service underwent an extensive reform in July 2011. The management structure changed from having self-employed drivers driving their own vehicles to a service being offered by a single company through a public tender (in Gozo, being considered as a small network, the service was given through direct order). The public tender was won by Arriva Malta, a member of the Arriva group, which introduced a fleet of brand new buses, built by King Long especially for service by Arriva Malta and including a smaller fleet of articulated buses brought in from Arriva London. It also operated two smaller buses for an intra-Valletta route only and 61 nine-metre buses, which were used to ease congestion on high-density routes. Overall Arriva Malta operated 264 buses. On 1 January 2014 Arriva ceased operations in Malta due to financial difficulties, having been nationalised as "Malta Public Transport" by the Maltese government, with a new bus operator planned to take over their operations in the near future. The government chose Autobuses Urbanos de León as its preferred bus operator for the country in October 2014. The company took over the bus service on 8 January 2015, while retaining the name "Malta Public Transport". It introduced the pre-pay 'tallinja card'. With lower fares than the walk-on rate, it can be topped up online. The card was initially not well received, as reported by several local news sites. During the first week of August 2015, another 40 buses of the Turkish make "Otokar" arrived and were put into service.
From 1883 to 1931 Malta had a railway line that connected Valletta to the army barracks at Mtarfa via Mdina and a number of towns and villages. The railway fell into disuse and eventually closed altogether, following the introduction of electric trams and buses. At the height of the bombing of Malta during the Second World War, Mussolini announced that his forces had destroyed the railway system, but by the time war broke out, the railway had been mothballed for more than nine years.
Malta has three large natural harbours on its main island:
There are also two man-made harbours that serve a passenger and car ferry service that connects Ċirkewwa Harbour on Malta and Mġarr Harbour on Gozo. The ferry makes numerous runs each day.
Malta International Airport (Ajruport Internazzjonali ta' Malta) is the only airport serving the Maltese islands. It is built on the land formerly occupied by the RAF Luqa air base. A heliport is also located there, but the scheduled service to Gozo ceased in 2006. The heliport in Gozo is at Xewkija. Since June 2007, Harbour Air Malta has operated a thrice-daily floatplane service between the sea terminal in Grand Harbour and Mgarr Harbour in Gozo.
Two further airfields at Ta' Qali and Ħal Far operated during the Second World War and into the 1960s but are now closed. Today, Ta' Qali houses a national park, stadium, the Crafts Village visitor attraction and the Malta Aviation Museum. This museum preserves several aircraft, including Hurricane and Spitfire fighters that defended the island in the Second World War.
The national airline is Air Malta, which is based at Malta International Airport and operates services to 36 destinations in Europe and North Africa. The owners of Air Malta are the Government of Malta (98 percent) and private investors (2 percent). Air Malta employs 1,547 staff. It has a 25 percent shareholding in Medavia.
Air Malta has concluded over 191 interline ticketing agreements with other IATA airlines. It also has a codeshare agreement with Qantas covering three routes. In September 2007, Air Malta made two agreements with Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways by which Air Malta wet-leased two Airbus aircraft to Etihad Airways for the winter period starting 1 September 2007, and provided operational support on another Airbus A320 aircraft which it leased to Etihad Airways.
The mobile penetration rate in Malta exceeded 100% by the end of 2009. Malta uses the GSM900, UMTS(3G) and LTE(4G) mobile phone systems, which are compatible with the rest of the European countries, Australia and New Zealand.
Telephone and cellular subscriber numbers have eight digits. There are no area codes in Malta, but after inception, the original first two numbers, and currently the 3rd and 4th digit, were assigned according to the locality. Fixed line telephone numbers have the prefix 21 and 27, although businesses may have numbers starting 22 or 23. An example would be 2*80**** if from Żabbar, and 2*23**** if from Marsa. Gozitan landline numbers generally are assigned 2*56****. Mobile telephone numbers have the prefix 77, 79, 98 or 99. Malta's international calling code is +356.
The number of pay-TV subscribers fell as customers switched to Internet Protocol television (IPTV): the number of IPTV subscribers doubled in the six months to June 2012.
In early 2012, the government called for a national Fibre to the Home (FttH) network to be built, with a minimum broadband service being upgraded from 4Mbit/s to 100Mbit/s.
Maltese euro coins feature the Maltese cross on €2 and €1 coins, the coat of arms of Malta on the €0.50, €0.20 and €0.10 coins, and the Mnajdra Temples on the €0.05, €0.02 and €0.01 coins.
Malta has produced collectors' coins with face value ranging from 10 to 50 euros. These coins continue an existing national practice of minting of silver and gold commemorative coins. Unlike normal issues, these coins are not accepted in all the eurozone. For instance, a €10 Maltese commemorative coin cannot be used in any other country.
From its introduction in 1972 until the introduction of the Euro in 2008, the currency was the Maltese lira, which had replaced the Maltese pound. The pound replaced the Maltese scudo in 1825.
Malta is a popular tourist destination, with 1.6 million tourists per year. Three times more tourists visit than there are residents. Tourism infrastructure has increased dramatically over the years and a number of hotels are present on the island, although overdevelopment and the destruction of traditional housing is of growing concern. An increasing number of Maltese now travel abroad on holiday.
In recent years, Malta has advertised itself as a medical tourism destination, and a number of health tourism providers are developing the industry. However, no Maltese hospital has undergone independent international healthcare accreditation. Malta is popular with British medical tourists, pointing Maltese hospitals towards seeking UK-sourced accreditation, such as with the Trent Accreditation Scheme.
Malta signed a co-operation agreement with the European Space Agency (ESA) for more-intensive co-operation in ESA projects.
The Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST) is the civil body responsible for the development of science and technology on an educational and social level. Most science students in Malta graduate from the University of Malta and are represented by S-Cubed (Science Student's Society), UESA (University Engineering Students Association) and ICTSA (University of Malta ICT Students' Association).
Malta conducts a census of population and housing every ten years. The census held in November 2005 counted an estimated 96 percent of the population. A preliminary report was issued in April 2006 and the results were weighted to estimate for 100 percent of the population.
Native Maltese people make up the majority of the island. However, there are minorities, the largest of which are Britons, many of whom are retirees.
The population of Malta was estimated at 408,000. , 17 percent were aged 14 and under, 68 percent were within the 15–64 age bracket whilst the remaining 13 percent were 65 years and over. Malta's population density of 1,282 per square km (3,322/sq mi) is by far the highest in the EU and one of the highest in the world. By comparison, the average population density for the "World (land only, excluding Antarctica)" was as of July 2014.
The only census year showing a fall in population was that of 1967, with a 1.7 per cent total decrease, attributable to a substantial number of Maltese residents who emigrated. The Maltese-resident population for 2004 was estimated to make up 97.0 per cent of the total resident population.
All censuses since 1842 have shown a slight excess of females over males. The 1901 and 1911 censuses came closest to recording a balance. The highest female-to-male ratio was reached in 1957 (1088:1000) but since then the ratio has dropped continuously. The 2005 census showed a 1013:1000 female-to-male ratio.
Population growth has slowed down, from +9.5 per cent between the 1985 and 1995 censuses, to +6.9 per cent between the 1995 and 2005 censuses (a yearly average of +0.7 per cent). The birth rate stood at 3860 (a decrease of 21.8 per cent from the 1995 census) and the death rate stood at 3025. Thus, there was a natural population increase of 835 (compared to +888 for 2004, of which over a hundred were foreign residents).
The population's age composition is similar to the age structure prevalent in the EU. Since 1967 there was observed a trend indicating an ageing population, and is expected to continue in the foreseeable future. Malta's old-age-dependency-ratio rose from 17.2 percent in 1995 to 19.8 percent in 2005, reasonably lower than the EU's 24.9 percent average; 31.5 percent of the Maltese population is aged under 25 (compared to the EU's 29.1 percent); but the 50–64 age group constitutes 20.3 percent of the population, significantly higher than the EU's 17.9 percent. Malta's old-age-dependency-ratio is expected to continue rising steadily in the coming years.
Maltese legislation recognises both civil and canonical (ecclesiastical) marriages. Annulments by the ecclesiastical and civil courts are unrelated and are not necessarily mutually endorsed. Malta voted in favour of divorce legislation in a referendum held on 28 May 2011. Abortion in Malta is illegal. A person must be 16 to marry. The number of brides aged under 25 decreased from 1471 in 1997 to 766 in 2005; while the number of grooms under 25 decreased from 823 to 311. There is a constant trend that females are more likely than males to marry young. In 2005 there were 51 brides aged between 16 and 19, compared to 8 grooms.
In 2018, the population of the Maltese Islands stood at 475,701. Males make up 50.5% of the population.
The total fertility rate (TFR) was estimated at 1.45 children born/woman, which is below the replacement rate of 2.1. In 2012, 25.8 per cent of births were to unmarried women. The life expectancy in 2018 was estimated at 83.
The Maltese language () is one of the two constitutional languages of Malta, having become official, however, only in 1934, and being considered as the national language. Previously, Sicilian was the official and cultural language of Malta from the 12th century, and the Tuscan dialect of Italian from the 16th century. Alongside Maltese, English is also an official language of the country and hence the laws of the land are enacted both in Maltese and English. However, article 74 of the Constitution states that "... if there is any conflict between the Maltese and the English texts of any law, the Maltese text shall prevail."
Maltese is a Semitic language descended from the now extinct Sicilian-Arabic (Siculo-Arabic) dialect (from southern Italy) that developed during the Emirate of Sicily. The Maltese alphabet consists of 30 letters based on the Latin alphabet, including the diacritically altered letters "ż", "ċ" and "ġ", as well as the letters "għ", "ħ", and "ie".
Maltese is the only Semitic language with official status in the European Union. Maltese has a Semitic base with substantial borrowing from Sicilian, Italian, a little French, and more recently and increasingly, English. The hybrid character of Maltese was established by a long period of Maltese-Sicilian urban bilingualism gradually transforming rural speech and which ended in the early 19th century with Maltese emerging as the vernacular of the entire native population. The language includes different dialects that can vary greatly from one town to another or from one island to another.
The Eurobarometer states that 97% percent of the Maltese population consider Maltese as mother tongue. Also, 88 percent of the population speak English, 66 percent speak Italian, and 17 percent speak French. This widespread knowledge of second languages makes Malta one of the most multilingual countries in the European Union. A study collecting public opinion on what language was "preferred" discovered that 86 percent of the population express a preference for Maltese, 12 percent for English, and 2 percent for Italian. Still, Italian television channels from Italy-based broadcasters, such as Mediaset and RAI, reach Malta and remain popular.
Maltese Sign Language is used by signers in Malta.
The predominant religion in Malta is Catholicism. The second article of the Constitution of Malta establishes Catholicism as the state religion and it is also reflected in various elements of Maltese culture, although entrenched provisions for the freedom of religion are made.
There are more than 360 churches in Malta, Gozo, and Comino, or one church for every 1,000 residents. The parish church (Maltese: ""il-parroċċa"", or ""il-knisja parrokkjali"") is the architectural and geographic focal point of every Maltese town and village, and its main source of civic pride. This civic pride manifests itself in spectacular fashion during the local village "festas", which mark the day of the patron saint of each parish with marching bands, religious processions, special Masses, fireworks (especially petards) and other festivities.
Malta is an Apostolic See; the Acts of the Apostles (historical accuracy disputed) tells of how St. Paul, on his way from Jerusalem to Rome to face trial, was shipwrecked on the island of "Melite", which many Bible scholars identify with Malta, an episode dated around AD 60. As recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, St. Paul spent three months on the island on his way to Rome, curing the sick including the father of Publius, the "chief man of the island". Various traditions are associated with this account. The shipwreck is said to have occurred in the place today known as St Paul's Bay. The Maltese saint, Saint Publius is said to have been made Malta's first bishop and a grotto in Rabat, now known as "St Paul's Grotto" (and in the vicinity of which evidence of Christian burials and rituals from the 3rd century AD has been found), is among the earliest known places of Christian worship on the island.
Further evidence of Christian practices and beliefs during the period of Roman persecution appears in catacombs that lie beneath various sites around Malta, including St. Paul's Catacombs and St. Agatha's Catacombs in Rabat, just outside the walls of Mdina. The latter, in particular, were frescoed between 1200 and 1480, although invading Turks defaced many of them in the 1550s. There are also a number of cave churches, including the grotto at Mellieħa, which is a Shrine of the Nativity of Our Lady where, according to legend, St. Luke painted a picture of the Madonna. It has been a place of pilgrimage since the medieval period.
The Acts of the Council of Chalcedon record that in 451 AD a certain Acacius was Bishop of Malta ("Melitenus Episcopus"). It is also known that in 501 AD, a certain Constantinus, "Episcopus Melitenensis", was present at the Fifth Ecumenical Council. In 588 AD, Pope Gregory I deposed Tucillus, "Miletinae civitatis episcopus" and the clergy and people of Malta elected his successor Trajan in 599 AD. The last recorded Bishop of Malta before the invasion of the islands was a Greek named Manas, who was subsequently incarcerated at Palermo.
Maltese historian Giovanni Francesco Abela states that following their conversion to Christianity at the hand of St. Paul, the Maltese retained their Christian religion, despite the Fatimid invasion. Abela's writings describe Malta as a divinely ordained "bulwark of Christian, European civilization against the spread of Mediterranean Islam". The native Christian community that welcomed Roger I of Sicily was further bolstered by immigration to Malta from Italy, in the 12th and 13th centuries.
For centuries, the Church in Malta was subordinate to the Diocese of Palermo, except when it was under Charles of Anjou, who appointed bishops for Malta, as did – on rare occasions – the Spanish and later, the Knights. Since 1808 all bishops of Malta have been Maltese. As a result of the Norman and Spanish periods, and the rule of the Knights, Malta became the devout Catholic nation that it is today. It is worth noting that the Office of the Inquisitor of Malta had a very long tenure on the island following its establishment in 1530: the last Inquisitor departed from the Islands in 1798 after the Knights capitulated to the forces of Napoleon Bonaparte. During the period of the Republic of Venice, several Maltese families emigrated to Corfu. Their descendants account for about two-thirds of the community of some 4,000 Catholics that now live on that island.
The patron saints of Malta are Saint Paul, Saint Publius, and Saint Agatha. Although not a patron saint, St George Preca (San Ġorġ Preca) is greatly revered as the second canonised Maltese saint after St. Publius. Pope Benedict XVI canonised Preca on 3 June 2007. A number of Maltese individuals are recognised as Blessed, including Maria Adeodata Pisani and Nazju Falzon, with Pope John Paul II having beatified them in 2001.
Various Catholic religious orders are present in Malta, including the Jesuits, Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites and Little Sisters of the Poor.
Most congregants of the local Protestant churches are not Maltese; their congregations draw on the many British retirees living in the country and vacationers from many other nations. There are approximately 600 Jehovah's Witnesses. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), the Bible Baptist Church, and the Fellowship of Evangelical Churches each has about 60 affiliates. There are also some churches of other denominations, including St. Andrew's Scots Church in Valletta (a joint Presbyterian and Methodist congregation) and St Paul's Anglican Cathedral, and a Seventh-day Adventist church in Birkirkara. A New Apostolic Church congregation was founded in 1983 in Gwardamangia.
The Jewish population of Malta reached its peak in the Middle Ages under Norman rule. In 1479, Malta and Sicily came under Aragonese rule and the Alhambra Decree of 1492 forced all Jews to leave the country, permitting them to take with them only a few of their belongings. Several dozen Maltese Jews may have converted to Christianity at the time to remain in the country. Today, there is one Jewish congregation.
There is one Muslim mosque, the Mariam Al-Batool Mosque. A Muslim primary school recently opened. Of the estimated 3,000 Muslims in Malta, approximately 2,250 are foreigners, approximately 600 are naturalised citizens, and approximately 150 are native-born Maltese.
Zen Buddhism and the Bahá'í Faith claim some 40 members.
In a survey held by the Malta Today, the overwhelming majority of the Maltese population adheres to Christianity (95.2%) with Catholicism as the main denomination (93.9%).
According to the same report, 4.5% of the population declared themselves as either atheist or agnostic, one of the lowest figures in Europe. The number of atheists has doubled from 2014 to 2018. Non-religious people have a higher risk of suffering from discrimination, such as lack of trust by society and unequal treatment by institutions. In the 2015 edition of the annual Freedom of Thought Report from the International Humanist and Ethical Union, Malta was in the category of "severe discrimination". In 2016, following the abolishment of blasphemy law, Malta was shifted to the category of "systematic discrimination" (which is the same category as most EU countries).
Most of the foreign community in Malta, predominantly active or retired British nationals and their dependents, is centred on Sliema and surrounding modern suburbs. Other smaller foreign groups include Italians, Libyans, and Serbians, many of whom have assimilated into the Maltese nation over the decades.
Malta is also home to a large number of foreign workers who migrated to the island to try and earn a better living. This migration was driven pre-dominantly at a time where the Maltese economy was steadily booming yet the cost and quality of living on the island remained relatively stable.
In recent years however the local Maltese housing index has doubled pushing property and rental prices to very high and almost unaffordable levels in the Maltese islands with the slight exception of Gozo. Salaries in Malta have risen very slowly and very marginally over the years making life on the island much harder than it was a few years ago.
As a direct result, a significant level of uncertainty exists among expats in Malta as to whether their financial situation on the island will remain affordable in the years going forth, with many already barely living paycheck to paycheck and others re-locating to other European countries altogether.
Since the late 20th century, Malta has become a transit country for migration routes from Africa towards Europe.
As a member of the European Union and of the Schengen Agreement, Malta is bound by the Dublin Regulation to process all claims for asylum by those asylum seekers that enter EU territory for the first time in Malta.
Irregular migrants who land in Malta are subject to a compulsory detention policy, being held in several camps organised by the Armed Forces of Malta (AFM), including those near Ħal Far and Ħal Safi. The compulsory detention policy has been denounced by several NGOs, and in July 2010, the European Court of Human Rights found that Malta's detention of migrants was arbitrary, lacking in adequate procedures to challenge detention, and in breach of its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.
In January 2014, Malta started granting citizenship for a €650,000 contribution plus investments, contingent on residence and criminal background checks.
This 'golden passport' citizenship scheme has been criticized on multiple occasions as a fraudulent act by the Maltese Government since it has come under scrutiny for selling citizenship to a number of dubious and/or criminal individuals from non-European nation countries.
Concerns as to whether the Maltese citizenship scheme is allowing an influx of such individuals into the greater European Union have been raised by both the public as well as the European Council on multiple occasions.
In the 19th century, most emigration from Malta was to North Africa and the Middle East, although rates of return migration to Malta were high. Nonetheless, Maltese communities formed in these regions. By 1900, for example, British consular estimates suggest that there were 15,326 Maltese in Tunisia, and in 1903 it was claimed that 15,000 people of Maltese origin were living in Algeria.
Malta experienced significant emigration as a result of the collapse of a construction boom in 1907 and after the Second World War, when the birth rate increased significantly, but in the 20th century, most emigrants went to destinations in the New World, particularly to Australia, Canada, and the United States. After the Second World War, Malta's Emigration Department would assist emigrants with the cost of their travel. Between 1948 and 1967, 30 percent of the population emigrated. Between 1946 and the late-1970s, over 140,000 people left Malta on the assisted passage scheme, with 57.6% migrating to Australia, 22% to the UK, 13% to Canada and 7% to the United States.
Emigration dropped dramatically after the mid-1970s and has since ceased to be a social phenomenon of significance. However, since Malta joined the EU in 2004 expatriate communities emerged in a number of European countries particularly in Belgium and Luxembourg.
Primary schooling has been compulsory since 1946; secondary education up to the age of sixteen was made compulsory in 1971. The state and the Church provide education free of charge, both running a number of schools in Malta and Gozo, including De La Salle College in Cospicua, St. Aloysius' College in Birkirkara, St. Paul's Missionary College in Rabat, Malta, St. Joseph's School in Blata l-Bajda and Saint Monica Girls' School in Mosta and Saint Augustine College, with its primary sector in Marsa and its secondary in Pieta. , state schools are organised into networks known as Colleges and incorporate kindergarten schools, primary and secondary schools. A number of private schools are run in Malta, including San Andrea School and San Anton School in the valley of L-Imselliet (l/o Mġarr), St. Martin's College in Swatar and St. Michael's School in San Ġwann. St. Catherine's High School, Pembroke offers an International Foundation Course for students wishing to learn English before entering mainstream education. , there are two international schools, Verdala International School and QSI Malta. The state pays a portion of the teachers' salary in Church schools.
Education in Malta is based on the British model. Primary school lasts six years. Pupils sit for SEC O-level examinations at the age of 16, with passes obligatory in certain subjects such as Mathematics, a minimum of one science subject (Physics, Biology or Chemistry), English and Maltese. Upon obtaining these subjects, Pupils may opt to continue studying at a sixth form college such as Gan Frangisk Abela Junior College, St. Aloysius' College, Giovanni Curmi Higher Secondary, De La Salle College, St Edward's College, or else at another post-secondary institution such as MCAST. The sixth form course lasts for two years, at the end of which students sit for the matriculation examination. Subject to their performance, students may then apply for an undergraduate degree or diploma.
The adult literacy rate is 99.5 per cent.
Maltese and English are both used to teach pupils at the primary and secondary school level, and both languages are also compulsory subjects. Public schools tend to use both Maltese and English in a balanced manner. Private schools prefer to use English for teaching, as is also the case with most departments of the University of Malta; this has a limiting effect on the capacity and development of the Maltese language. Most university courses are in English.
Of the total number of pupils studying a first foreign language at secondary level, 51 per cent take Italian whilst 38 per cent take French. Other choices include German, Russian, Spanish, Latin, Chinese and Arabic.
Malta is also a popular destination to study the English language, attracting over 80,000 students in 2012.
Malta has a long history of providing publicly funded health care. The first hospital recorded in the country was already functioning by 1372.
Today, Malta has both a public healthcare system, known as the government healthcare service, where healthcare is free at the point of delivery, and a private healthcare system. Malta has a strong general practitioner-delivered primary care base and the public hospitals provide secondary and tertiary care. The Maltese Ministry of Health advises foreign residents to take out private medical insurance.
Malta also boasts voluntary organisations such as Alpha Medical (Advanced Care), the Emergency Fire & Rescue Unit (E.F.R.U.), St John Ambulance and Red Cross Malta who provide first aid/nursing services during events involving crowds.
The Mater Dei Hospital, Malta's primary hospital, opened in 2007. It has one of the largest medical buildings in Europe.
The University of Malta has a medical school and a Faculty of Health Sciences, the latter offering diploma, degree (BSc) and postgraduate degree courses in a number of health care disciplines.
The Medical Association of Malta represents practitioners of the medical profession. The Malta Medical Students' Association (MMSA) is a separate body representing Maltese medical students, and is a member of EMSA and IFMSA. MIME, the Maltese Institute for Medical Education, is an institute set up recently to provide CME to physicians in Malta as well as medical students. The Foundation Program followed in the UK has been introduced in Malta to stem the 'brain drain' of newly graduated physicians to the British Isles. The Malta Association of Dental Students (MADS) is a student association set up to promote the rights of Dental Surgery Students studying within the faculty of Dental Surgery of the University of Malta. It is affiliated with IADS, the International Association of Dental Students.
See also Health in Malta
The culture of Malta reflects the various cultures, from the Phoenicians to the British, that have come into contact with the Maltese Islands throughout the centuries, including neighbouring Mediterranean cultures, and the cultures of the nations that ruled Malta for long periods of time prior to its independence in 1964.
While Maltese music today is largely Western, traditional Maltese music includes what is known as għana. This consists of background folk guitar music, while a few people, generally men, take it in turns to argue a point in a sing-song voice. The aim of the lyrics, which are improvised, is to create a friendly yet challenging atmosphere, and it takes a number of years of practice to be able to combine the required artistic qualities with the ability to debate effectively.
Documented Maltese literature is over 200 years old. However, a recently unearthed love ballad testifies to literary activity in the local tongue from the Medieval period. Malta followed a Romantic literary tradition, culminating in the works of Dun Karm Psaila, Malta's National Poet. Subsequent writers like Ruzar Briffa and Karmenu Vassallo tried to estrange themselves from the rigidity of formal themes and versification.
The next generation of writers, including Karl Schembri and Immanuel Mifsud, widened the tracks further, especially in prose and poetry.
Maltese architecture has been influenced by many different Mediterranean cultures and British architecture over its history. The first settlers on the island constructed Ġgantija, one of the oldest manmade freestanding structures in the world. The Neolithic temple builders 3800–2500 BC endowed the numerous temples of Malta and Gozo with intricate bas relief designs, including spirals evocative of the tree of life and animal portraits, designs painted in red ochre, ceramics and a vast collection of human form sculptures, particularly the Venus of Malta. These can be viewed at the temples themselves (most notably, the Hypogeum and Tarxien Temples), and at the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta. Malta's temples such as Imnajdra are full of history and have a story behind them. Malta is currently undergoing several large-scale building projects, including the construction of SmartCity Malta, the M-Towers and Pendergardens, while areas such as the Valletta Waterfront and Tigné Point have been or are being renovated.
The Roman period introduced highly decorative mosaic floors, marble colonnades, and classical statuary, remnants of which are beautifully preserved and presented in the Roman Domus, a country villa just outside the walls of Mdina. The early Christian frescoes that decorate the catacombs beneath Malta reveal a propensity for eastern, Byzantine tastes. These tastes continued to inform the endeavours of medieval Maltese artists, but they were increasingly influenced by the Romanesque and Southern Gothic movements.
Towards the end of the 15th century, Maltese artists, like their counterparts in neighbouring Sicily, came under the influence of the School of Antonello da Messina, which introduced Renaissance ideals and concepts to the decorative arts in Malta.
The artistic heritage of Malta blossomed under the Knights of St. John, who brought Italian and Flemish Mannerist painters to decorate their palaces and the churches of these islands, most notably, Matteo Perez d'Aleccio, whose works appear in the Magisterial Palace and in the Conventual Church of St. John in Valletta, and Filippo Paladini, who was active in Malta from 1590 to 1595. For many years, Mannerism continued to inform the tastes and ideals of local Maltese artists.
The arrival in Malta of Caravaggio, who painted at least seven works during his 15-month stay on these islands, further revolutionised local art. Two of Caravaggio's most notable works, "The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist" and "Saint Jerome Writing", are on display in the Oratory of the Conventual Church of St. John. His legacy is evident in the works of local artists Giulio Cassarino (1582–1637) and Stefano Erardi (1630–1716). However, the Baroque movement that followed was destined to have the most enduring impact on Maltese art and architecture. The glorious vault paintings of the celebrated Calabrese artist, Mattia Preti transformed the severe, Mannerist interior of the Conventual Church St. John into a Baroque masterpiece. Preti spent the last 40 years of his life in Malta, where he created many of his finest works, now on display in the Museum of Fine Arts in Valletta. During this period, local sculptor Melchior Gafà (1639–1667) emerged as one of the top Baroque sculptors of the Roman School.
During the 17th and 18th century, Neapolitan and Rococo influences emerged in the works of the Italian painters Luca Giordano (1632–1705) and Francesco Solimena (1657–1747), and these developments can be seen in the work of their Maltese contemporaries such as Gio Nicola Buhagiar (1698–1752) and Francesco Zahra (1710–1773). The Rococo movement was greatly enhanced by the relocation to Malta of Antoine de Favray (1706–1798), who assumed the position of court painter to Grand Master Pinto in 1744.
Neo-classicism made some inroads among local Maltese artists in the late-18th century, but this trend was reversed in the early 19th century, as the local Church authorities – perhaps in an effort to strengthen Catholic resolve against the perceived threat of Protestantism during the early days of British rule in Malta – favoured and avidly promoted the religious themes embraced by the Nazarene movement of artists. Romanticism, tempered by the naturalism introduced to Malta by Giuseppe Calì, informed the "salon" artists of the early 20th century, including Edward and Robert Caruana Dingli.
Parliament established the National School of Art in the 1920s. During the reconstruction period that followed the Second World War, the emergence of the "Modern Art Group", whose members included Josef Kalleya (1898–1998), George Preca (1909–1984), Anton Inglott (1915–1945), Emvin Cremona (1919–1987), Frank Portelli (1922–2004), Antoine Camilleri (1922–2005), Gabriel Caruana (1929-2018) and Esprit Barthet (1919–1999) greatly enhanced the local art scene. This group of forward-looking artists came together forming an influential pressure group known as the Modern Art Group. Together they forced the Maltese public to take seriously modern aesthetics and succeeded in playing a leading role in the renewal of Maltese art. Most of Malta's modern artists have in fact studied in Art institutions in England, or on the continent, leading to the explosive development of a wide spectrum of views and to a diversity of artistic expression that has remained characteristic of contemporary Maltese art. In Valletta, the National Museum of Fine Arts featured work from artists such as H. Craig Hanna. In 2018 the national collection of fine arts was moved and put on display in the new National Museum of Art, MUŻA, located at Auberge d’Italie in Valletta.
Maltese cuisine shows strong Sicilian and English influences as well as influences of Spanish, Maghrebin and Provençal cuisines. A number of regional variations, particularly with regards to Gozo, can be noted as well as seasonal variations associated with the seasonal availability of produce and Christian feasts (such as Lent, Easter and Christmas). Food has been important historically in the development of a national identity in particular the traditional "fenkata" (i.e., the eating of stewed or fried rabbit). Potatoes are a staple of the Maltese diet as well.
A number of grapes are endemic to Malta, including Girgentina and Ġellewża. There is a strong wine industry in Malta, with significant production of wines using these native grapes, as well as locally grown grapes of other more common varietals, such as Chardonnay and Syrah. A number of wines have achieved Protected Designation of Origin, with wines produced from grapes cultivated in Malta and Gozo designated as “DOK” wines, that is "Denominazzjoni ta’ l-Oriġini Kontrollata".
A 2010 Charities Aid Foundation study found that the Maltese were the most generous people in the world, with 83% contributing to charity.
Maltese folktales include various stories about mysterious creatures and supernatural events. These were most comprehensively compiled by the scholar (and pioneer in Maltese archaeology) Manwel Magri in his core criticism ""Ħrejjef Missirijietna"" ("Fables from our Forefathers"). This collection of material inspired subsequent researchers and academics to gather traditional tales, fables and legends from all over the Archipelago.
Magri's work also inspired a series of comic books (released by Klabb Kotba Maltin in 1984): the titles included "Bin is-Sultan Jiźźewweġ x-Xebba tat-Tronġiet Mewwija" and "Ir-Rjieħ". Many of these stories have been popularly re-written as Children's literature by authors writing in Maltese, such as Trevor Żahra. While giants, witches, and dragons feature in many of the stories, some contain entirely Maltese creatures like the Kaw kaw, Il-Belliegħa and L-Imħalla among others. The traditional Maltese obsession with maintaining spiritual (or ritual) purity means that many of these creatures have the role of guarding forbidden or restricted areas and attacking individuals who broke the strict codes of conduct that characterised the island's pre-industrial society.
Traditional Maltese proverbs reveal cultural importance of childbearing and fertility: ""iż-żwieġ mingħajr tarbija ma fihx tgawdija"" (a childless marriage cannot be a happy one). This is a belief that Malta shares with many other Mediterranean cultures. In Maltese folktales the local variant of the classic closing formula, "and they all lived happily ever after" is ""u għammru u tgħammru, u spiċċat"" (and they lived together, and they had children together, and the tale is finished).
Rural Malta shares in common with the Mediterranean society a number of superstitions regarding fertility, menstruation, and pregnancy, including the avoidance of cemeteries during the months leading up to childbirth, and avoiding the preparation of certain foods during menses. Pregnant women are encouraged to satisfy their cravings for specific foods, out of fear that their unborn child will bear a representational birth mark (Maltese: "xewqa", literally "desire" or "craving"). Maltese and Sicilian women also share certain traditions that are believed to predict the sex of an unborn child, such as the cycle of the moon on the anticipated date of birth, whether the baby is carried "high" or "low" during pregnancy, and the movement of a wedding ring, dangled on a string above the abdomen (sideways denoting a girl, back and forth denoting a boy).
Traditionally, Maltese newborns were baptised as promptly as possible, should the child die in infancy without receiving this vital Sacrament; and partly because according to Maltese (and Sicilian) folklore an unbaptised child is not yet a Christian, but "still a Turk". Traditional Maltese delicacies served at a baptismal feast include "biskuttini tal-magħmudija" (almond macaroons covered in white or pink icing), "it-torta tal-marmorata" (a spicy, heart-shaped tart of chocolate-flavoured almond paste), and a liqueur known as "rożolin", made with rose petals, violets, and almonds.
On a child's first birthday, in a tradition that still survives today, Maltese parents would organise a game known as "il-quċċija", where a variety of symbolic objects would be randomly placed around the seated child. These may include a hard-boiled egg, a Bible, crucifix or rosary beads, a book, and so on. Whichever object the child shows the most interest in is said to reveal the child's path and fortunes in adulthood.
Money refers to a rich future while a book expresses intelligence and a possible career as a teacher. Infants who select a pencil or pen will be writers. Choosing Bibles or rosary beads refers to a clerical or monastic life. If the child chooses a hard-boiled egg, it will have a long life and many children. More recent additions include calculators (refers to accounting), thread (fashion) and wooden spoons (cooking and a great appetite).
Traditional Maltese weddings featured the bridal party walking in procession beneath an ornate canopy, from the home of the bride's family to the parish church, with singers trailing behind serenading the bride and groom. The Maltese word for this custom is "il-ġilwa". This custom along with many others has long since disappeared from the islands, in the face of modern practices.
New wives would wear the għonnella, a traditional item of Maltese clothing. However, it is no longer worn in modern Malta. Today's couples are married in churches or chapels in the village or town of their choice. The nuptials are usually followed by a lavish and joyous wedding reception, often including several hundred guests. Occasionally, couples will try to incorporate elements of the traditional Maltese wedding in their celebration. A resurgent interest in the traditional wedding was evident in May 2007, when thousands of Maltese and tourists attended a traditional Maltese wedding in the style of the 16th century, in the village of Żurrieq. This included "il-ġilwa", which led the bride and groom to a wedding ceremony that took place on the parvis of St. Andrew's Chapel. The reception that followed featured folklore music ("għana") and dancing.
Local festivals, similar to those in Southern Italy, are commonplace in Malta and Gozo, celebrating weddings, christenings and, most prominently, saints' days, honouring the patron saint of the local parish. On saints' days, in the morning, the "festa" reaches its apex with a High Mass featuring a sermon on the life and achievements of the patron saint. In the evening, then, a statue of the religious patron is taken around the local streets in solemn procession, with the faithful following in respectful prayer. The atmosphere of religious devotion is preceded by several days of celebration and revelry: band marches, fireworks, and late-night parties.
Carnival (Maltese: "il-karnival ta' Malta") has had an important place on the cultural calendar after Grand Master Piero de Ponte introduced it to the islands in 1535. It is held during the week leading up to Ash Wednesday, and typically includes masked balls, fancy dress and grotesque mask competitions, lavish late-night parties, a colourful, ticker-tape parade of allegorical floats presided over by King Carnival (Maltese: "ir-Re tal-Karnival"), marching bands and costumed revellers.
Holy Week (Maltese: "il-Ġimgħa Mqaddsa") starts on Palm Sunday ("Ħadd il-Palm") and ends on Easter Sunday ("Ħadd il-Għid"). Numerous religious traditions, most of them inherited from one generation to the next, are part of the paschal celebrations in the Maltese Islands, honouring the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Mnarja, or l-Imnarja (pronounced "lim-nar-ya") is one of the most important dates on the Maltese cultural calendar. Officially, it is a national festival dedicated to the feast of Saints Peter and St. Paul. Its roots can be traced back to the pagan Roman feast of "Luminaria" (literally, "the illumination"), when torches and bonfires lit up the early summer night of 29 June.
A national feast since the rule of the Knights, Mnarja is a traditional Maltese festival of food, religion and music. The festivities still commence today with the reading of the ""bandu"", an official governmental announcement, which has been read on this day in Malta since the 16th century. Originally, Mnarja was celebrated outside St. Paul's Grotto, in the north of Malta. However, by 1613 the focus of the festivities had shifted to the Cathedral of St. Paul, in Mdina, and featured torchlight processions, the firing of 100 petards, horseraces, and races for men, boys, and slaves. Modern Mnarja festivals take place in and around the woodlands of Buskett, just outside the town of Rabat.
It is said that under the Knights, this was the one day in the year when the Maltese were allowed to hunt and eat wild rabbit, which was otherwise reserved for the hunting pleasures of the Knights. The close connection between Mnarja and rabbit stew (Maltese: ""fenkata"") remains strong today.
In 1854 British governor William Reid launched an agricultural show at Buskett which is still being held today. The farmers' exhibition is still a seminal part of the Mnarja festivities today.
Mnarja today is one of the few occasions when participants may hear traditional Maltese "għana". Traditionally, grooms would promise to take their brides to Mnarja during the first year of marriage. For luck, many of the brides would attend in their wedding gown and veil, although this custom has long since disappeared from the islands.
Isle of MTV is a one-day music festival produced and broadcast on an annual basis by MTV. The festival has been arranged annually in Malta since 2007, with major pop artists performing each year. 2012 saw the performances of worldwide acclaimed artists Flo Rida, Nelly Furtado and Will.i.am at Fosos Square in Floriana. Over 50,000 people attended, which marked the biggest attendance so far.
In 2009 the first New Year's Eve street party was organised in Malta, parallel to what major countries in the world organise. Although the event was not highly advertised, and was controversial due to the closing of an arterial street on the day, it is deemed to have been successful and will most likely be organised every year.
The Malta International Fireworks Festival is an annual festival that has been arranged in the Grand Harbour of Valletta since 2003. The festival offers fireworks displays of a number of Maltese as well as foreign fireworks factories. The festival is usually held in the last week of April every year.
The most widely read and financially the strongest newspapers are published by Allied Newspapers Ltd., mainly "The Times of Malta" (27 percent) and its Sunday edition "The Sunday Times of Malta" (51.6 percent). Due to bilingualism half of the newspapers are published in English and the other half in Maltese. The Sunday newspaper "It-Torċa" ("The Torch") published by the Union Press, a subsidiary of the General Workers' Union, is the widest Maltese language paper. Its sister paper, "L-Orizzont" ("The Horizon"), is the Maltese daily with the biggest circulation. There is a high number of daily or weekly newspapers; there is one paper for every 28,000 people. Advertising, sales, and subsidies are the three main methods of financing newspapers and magazines. However, most of the papers and magazines tied to institutions are subsidised by the same institutions, they depend on advertising or subsidies from their owners.
There are eight terrestrial television channels in Malta: TVM, TVM2, Parliament TV, One, NET Television, Smash Television, F Living and Xejk. These channels are transmitted by digital terrestrial, free-to-air signals on UHF channel 66. The state and political parties subsidise most of the funding of these television stations. TVM, TVM2, and Parliament TV are operated by Public Broadcasting Services, the national broadcaster, and members of the EBU. Media.link Communications Ltd., the owner of NET Television, and One Productions Ltd., the owner of One, are affiliated with the Nationalist and Labour parties, respectively. The rest are privately owned. The Malta Broadcasting Authority supervises all local broadcasting stations and ensures their compliance with legal and licence obligations as well as the preservation of due impartiality; in respect of matters of political or industrial controversy or relating to current public policy; while fairly apportioning broadcasting facilities and time between persons belong to different political parties. The Broadcasting Authority ensures that local broadcasting services consist of public, private and community broadcasts that offer varied and comprehensive programming to cater for all interests and tastes.
The Malta Communications Authority reported that there were 147,896 pay TV subscriptions active at the end of 2012, which includes analogue and digital cable, pay digital terrestrial TV and IPTV. For reference the latest census counts 139,583 households in Malta. Satellite reception is available to receive other European television networks such as the BBC from Great Britain and RAI and Mediaset from Italy.
In 2018 Malta hosted its first Esports tournament, 'Supernova CS:GO Malta', a tournament with a $150,000 prize pool.
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Demographics of Malta
This article is about the demographic features of the population of Malta, including population density, ethnicity, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
Malta is the most densely populated country in the EU and one of the most densely populated countries in the world, with about 1,265 inhabitants per square kilometre (3,000 per square mile). This compares with about 32 per square kilometre (85 per square mile) for the United States. A census (held every 10 years) was held in November 2005.
Inhabited since prehistoric times, Malta was first colonized by Sicilians. Subsequently, Phoenicians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs in 870 CE who may have completely depopulated the islands but in 1224 were themselves expelled from Malta, Normans, Sicilians, Spanish, French and the British have influenced Maltese life and culture to varying degrees.
Roman Catholicism is established by law as the religion of Malta with 98%; however, full liberty of conscience and freedom of worship is guaranteed, and a number of faiths have places of worship on the island (rather small groups, a combined total of 2% of the people are Protestants, Eastern Orthodox, Muslims and Jews).
Malta has two official languages--Maltese (a Semitic language derived from Siculo-Arabic and heavily influenced by Sicilian and Italian), and English. Both languages are compulsory subjects in Maltese primary and secondary schools. A large portion of the population is also fluent in Italian, which was, until 1936, the national language of Malta. The literacy rate has reached 93%, compared to 63% in 1946. Schooling is compulsory until age 16.
Since 2000, the shift in the age composition towards an older population continued to materialise. In fact, the average age of the Maltese population increased from 38.5 in 2005 to 40.5 in 2011. This resulted from the increase in the number of persons aged 55 and over, together with a decrease in the number of persons under 25 years of age. The average in Gozo and Comino (41.6 years) was higher than that observed for Malta.
Persons aged 65 and over more represent 16.3% of the total population in 2011, compared to 13.7% in 2005. In contrast, persons aged 14 and under make up 14.8% of the population in 2011, compared to 17.2% in 2005.
Foreign nationals in Malta
As of 2016 and 2017, the numbers of selected groups of resident foreign nationals (non-naturalized residents) in Malta were as follows:
This list does not include foreign nationals who acquired Maltese nationality and foreign nationals without resident status.
Malta has long been a country of emigration, with big Maltese communities in English-speaking countries abroad.
Mass emigration picked up in the 19th century, reaching its peak in the decades after World War II.
In the nineteenth century, most migration from Malta was to North Africa and the Middle East (particularly Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt), although rates of return migration to Malta were high. Nonetheless, Maltese communities formed in these regions. By 1900, for example, British consular estimates suggest that there were 15,326 Maltese in Tunisia.
There is little trace left of the Maltese communities in North Africa, most of them having been displaced, after the rise of independence movements, to places like Marseille, the United Kingdom or Australia.
After World War II, Malta's Emigration Department would assist emigrants with the cost of their travel. Between 1948 and 1967, 30 per cent of the population emigrated. Between 1946 and the late 1970s, over 140,000 people left Malta on the assisted passage scheme, with 57.6 per cent migrating to Australia, 22 per cent to the UK, 13 per cent to Canada and 7 per cent to the United States. (See also Maltese Australians; Maltese people in the United Kingdom)
46,998 Maltese-born residents were recorded by the 2001 Australian Census, 30,178 by the 2001 UK Census, 9,525 by the 2001 Canadian Census and 9,080 by the 2000 United States Census.
Emigration dropped dramatically after the mid-1970s and has since ceased to be a social phenomenon of significance. However, since Malta joined the EU in 2004 expatriate communities emerged in a number of European countries particularly in Belgium and Luxembourg. At the same time, Malta is becoming more and more attractive for communities of immigrants, both from Western and Northern Europe (Italians, British) and from Eastern Europe (Serbians).
Most of the foreign community in Malta, predominantly active or retired British nationals and their dependents, is centred on Sliema and surrounding modern suburbs. Other smaller foreign groups include Italians, French, and Lebanese, many of whom have assimilated into the Maltese nation over the decades.
Since the late 20th century, Malta has become a transit country for migration routes from Africa towards Europe.
As a member of the European Union and of the Schengen agreement, Malta is bound by the Dublin Regulation to process all claims for asylum by those asylum seekers that enter EU territory for the first time in Malta.
Irregular migrants (formal Maltese: "immigranti irregolari", informal: "klandestini") who land in Malta are subject to a compulsory detention policy, being held in several camps organised by the Armed Forces of Malta (AFM), including those near Ħal Far and Ħal Safi. The compulsory detention policy has been denounced by several NGOs, and in July 2010, the European Court of Human Rights found that Malta's detention of migrants was arbitrary, lacking in adequate procedures to challenge detention, and in breach of its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.
Very few migrants arrived in Malta in 2015, despite the fact that the rest Europe is experiencing a migrant crisis. Most migrants who were rescued between Libya and Malta were taken to Italy, and some refused to be brought to Malta.
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.
Largest cities:
Life expectancy at birth:
"total population:"
79.01 years
"male:"
76.83 years
"female:"
81.31 years (2006 est.)
Total fertility rate:
1.42 children born/woman (2015 est.)
State religion:
Roman Catholic Church in Malta 88.6% (2016 est.)
Languages:
Maltese (official de facto), English (official de jure), Italian (widely understood)
"Statistics from United Nations" "and National Statistics Office Malta"
Notes:
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Politics of Malta
The politics of Malta takes place within a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Malta is the constitutional head of state. Executive Authority is vested in the President of Malta with the general direction and control of the Government of Malta remaining with the Prime Minister of Malta who is the head of government and the cabinet. Legislative power is vested in the Parliament of Malta which consists of the President of Malta and the unicameral House of Representatives of Malta with the Speaker presiding officer of the legislative body. Judicial power remains with the Chief Justice and the Judiciary of Malta. Since Independence, the party electoral system has been dominated by the Christian democratic Nationalist Party ("Partit Nazzjonalista") and the social democratic Labour Party ("Partit Laburista").
Since independence, two parties have dominated Malta's polarized and evenly divided politics during this period: the centre-right Nationalist Party and the centre-left Labour Party. Third parties have failed to score any electoral success since the pre-independence 1962 general election. In the 2013 election, the Democratic Alternative (a green party established in 1989) managed to secure only 1.80% of the first preference votes nationwide.
The 1996 elections resulted in the election of the Labour Party, by 8,000 votes, to replace the Nationalists who had won in 1987 and 1992. Voter turnout was characteristically high at 96%, with the Labour Party receiving 50.72%, the Nationalist Party 47.8%, the Democratic Alternative 1.46%, and independent candidates 0.02%. In 1998, the Labour Party's loss in a parliamentary vote led the Prime Minister to call an early election. The Nationalist Party was returned to office in September 1998 by a majority of 13,000 votes, holding a five-seat majority in Parliament. Voter turnout was 95%, with the Nationalist Party receiving 51.81%, the Labour Party 46.97%, the Democratic Alternative 1.21%, and independent candidates 0.01%.
The Nationalist government wrapped up negotiations for European Union membership by the end of 2002. A referendum on the issue was called in March 2003 for which the Nationalists and the Democratic Alternative campaigned for a "yes" vote while Labour campaigned heavily for "no" vote, invalidate their vote or abstain. Turnout was 91%, with more than 53% voting "yes".
The Labour Party argued that the "yes" votes amounted to less than 50% of the overall votes, hence, and citing the 1956 Integration referendum as an example, they claimed that the "yes" had not in fact won the referendum. The then MLP Leader Alfred Sant said that the General Elections that was to be held within a month would settle the affair. In the General Elections the Nationalists were returned to office with 51.79% of the vote to Labour's 47.51%. The Democratic Alternative polled 0.68%. The Nationalists were thus able to form a government and sign and ratify the EU Accession Treaty on 16 April 2003.
On 1 May 2004 Malta joined the EU and on 1 January 2008, the Eurozone with the euro as the national currency. The first elections after membership were held in March 2008 resulting in a narrow victory for the Nationalist Party with 49.34% of first preference votes. In May 2011, a nationwide referendum was held on the introduction of divorce. This was the first time in the history of parliament that a motion originating outside from the Cabinet had been approved by Parliament.
In March 2013, the slim majority enjoyed by the Nationalists was overturned dramatically with the Labour Party returning to Government after fifteen years in Opposition. A record-breaking lead of 36,000 votes was achieved by the Labour Party leading to the resignation of the Nationalist leader Lawrence Gonzi.
In June 2017, after a snap election was called by the Labour Party on its May Day celebrations. The record-breaking vote disparity achieved by the Labour Party in 2013 was again increased to around 40,000 votes. The then leader of the opposition Simon Busuttil announced his resignation shortly thereafter. This election saw the first third party elected to Malta's Parliament since its Independence, with the election of Marlene Farrugia in the 10th District representing the Democratic Party.
Under its 1964 constitution, Malta became a parliamentary democracy within the Commonwealth. Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom was sovereign of Malta, and a Governor-General exercised executive authority on her behalf, while the actual direction and control of the government and the nation's affairs were in the hands of the cabinet under the leadership of a Maltese prime minister.
On December 13, 1974, the constitution was revised, and Malta became a republic within the Commonwealth, with executive authority vested in the President of Malta which can be exercised directly or through officers subordinate to him. The president is elected by the House of Representatives for a five-year term. They appoint as Prime Minister the leader of the party with a majority of seats in the unicameral House of Representatives, known in Maltese as "Kamra tad-Deputati".
The President also nominally appoints, upon recommendation of the Prime Minister, the individual ministers. Ministers are selected from among the members of the House of Representatives, which usually consists of 65 members unless bonus seats are given to a party which gains an absolute majority of votes but not a Parliamentary majority. Elections must be held at least every 5 years and the electoral system used is single transferable vote.
Malta is divided into 68 elected local councils, with each council responsible for the administration of cities or regions of varying sizes. Administrative responsibility is distributed between the local councils and the central government in Valletta.
The Local Councils Act, 1993 (Act XV of 1993) was published on June 30, 1993, subdividing Malta into 54 local councils in Malta and 14 in Gozo. The inhabitants who are registered elect the Council every three years, as voters in the Local Councils' Electoral Register. Elections are held by means of the system of proportional representation using the single transferable vote. The mayor is the head of the Local Council and the representative of the Council for all effects under the Act. The Executive Secretary, who is appointed by the Council, is the executive, administrative, and financial head of the Council. All decisions are taken collectively with the other members of the Council. Local councils are responsible for the general upkeep and embellishment of the locality, local wardens, and refuse collection, and carry out general administrative duties for the central government such as collection of government rents and funds, and answering government-related public inquiries.
There are also Administrative Committees elected with responsibility for smaller regions.
Elections to the House of Representatives ("Kamra tad-Deputati") are based on the single transferable vote system, a variant of the proportional representation electoral system. First vacancies are filled through casual election and subsequent vacancies through co-option, meaning that no by-elections are held between one general election and the other. The Parliamentary term cannot exceed five years.
Ordinarily, 65 members are elected to the House from 13 multi-seat constituencies each returning 5 MPs. Additional MPs are elected in two circumstances:
A third electoral amendment has been enacted which guarantees strict-proportionality with respect to votes and seats to parliamentary political groups.
The Judicial system in Malta comprises Inferior Courts, Civil and Criminal Courts of
Appeal, and a Constitutional Court. Inferior courts are presided over by a Magistrates which have original jurisdiction in criminal and civil actions. In the Criminal Courts, the presiding judge sits with a jury of nine. The Court of Appeal and the Court of Criminal Appeal hear appeals from decisions of the civil and criminal actions respectively.
The highest court, the Constitutional Court, has both original and appellate jurisdiction. In its appellate jurisdiction it adjudicates cases involving violations of human rights and interpretation of the Constitution. It can also perform judicial review. In its original jurisdiction it has jurisdiction over disputed parliamentary elections and electoral corrupt practices.
There is a legal aid scheme offered to citizens lacking the means to afford legal defence.
According to the Constitution, the President appoints the Chief Justice of Malta and the judges of the superior courts on the advice of the Prime Minister of Malta.
Guarantees for the independence of the judiciary include the security of tenure for judges until their mandatory retiring age set at 65, or until impeachment. The impeachment procedure for judges foresees a removal decision of the President upon request by the House of
Representatives supported by a two-thirds majority of its members. Impeachment may be based on the grounds of proved inability to perform judiciary functions in office (whether it is infirmity of body or mind or any other cause) or proved misbehavior by the Commission for the Administration of Justice.
The independence of the judiciary is also guaranteed by the constitutional requirement that the judges’ salaries are paid from the Consolidated Fund and thus the government may not diminish or amend them to their prejudice.
The Maltese system is considered in line with the principles of separation of powers and of independence of the judiciary. However, in its pre-accession evaluation reports, the European Commission has suggested in 2003 the need to reform the procedure for appointment of the members of the judiciary, currently "controlled by political bodies" (i.e. the Parliament and parties therein), in order to improve its objectivity. The Commission has also pointed to the need to check the compliance of the procedure for challenging judges and magistrates provided for by Article 738 of the Code of Organisation and Civil Procedure with the principle of an impartial tribunal enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights.
Malta is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, CE, EBRD, ECE, EU (member from 1 May 2004), FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IFAD, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO
Malta was a long-time member of the Non-Aligned Movement. It ceased to be part of the movement when it joined the European Union.
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Economy of Malta
The economy of Malta is a highly industrialised, service-based economy. It is classified as an advanced economy by the International Monetary Fund and is considered a high-income country by the World Bank and an innovation-driven economy by the World Economic Forum. It is a member of the European Union and of the eurozone, having formally adopted the euro on 1 January 2008.
The strengths of Malta's economy are its strategic location, being situated in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea at a crossroads between Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, its fully developed open market economy, multilingual population (88% of Maltese people speak English), productive labour force, low corporate tax and well developed finance and ICT clusters. The economy is dependent on foreign trade, manufacturing (especially electronics), tourism and financial services. In 2014, over 1.7 million tourists visited the island.
Malta's GDP per capita in 2012, adjusted by purchasing power parity, stood at $29,200 and ranked 15th in the list of EU countries in terms of purchasing power standard. In the 2013 calendar year, Malta recorded a budget deficit of 2.7%, which is within the limits for eurozone countries imposed by the Maastricht criteria, and Government gross debt of 69.8%. At 5.9%, Malta had the sixth-lowest unemployment rate in the EU in 2015.
Malta is the 18th-most democratic country in the world according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index.
During the Napoleonic Wars (1800–1815), Malta's economy prospered and became the focal point of a major trading system. In 1808, two thirds of the cargo consigned from Malta went to Levant and Egypt. Later, one half of the cargo was usually destined for Trieste. Cargo consisted of largely British and colonial-manufactured goods. Malta's economy became prosperous from this trade and many artisans, such as weavers, found new jobs in the port industry.
In 1820, during the Battle of Navarino, which took place in Greece, the British fleet was based in Malta. In 1839, the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company and East India Companies used Malta as a calling port on their Egypt and Levant runs.
In 1869, the opening of the Suez Canal benefited Malta's economy greatly as there was a massive increase in the shipping which entered in the port. The economy had entered a special phase. The Mediterranean Sea became the "world highway of trade" and a number of ships called at Malta for coal and various supplies on their way to the Indian Ocean and the Far East. From 1871 to 1881, about 8,000 workers found jobs in the Malta docks and a number of banks opened in Malta. By 1882, Malta reached the height of its prosperity.
However, the boom did not last long. By the end of the 19th century, the economy began declining and by the 1940s, Malta's economy was in serious crisis. This was primarily due to the invention of large ships which had become oil-fired and therefore had no need to stop in the Grand Harbor of Malta to refuel. The British Government had to extend the dockyard.
At the end of World War II, Malta's strategic importance had reached a low point. Modern air warfare technology and the invention of the atomic bomb had changed the importance of the military base. The British lost control of the Suez Canal and withdrew from the naval dockyard, transforming it for commercial shipbuilding and ship repair purposes.
The Maltese economy is dependent on foreign trade, manufacturing (especially electronics and pharmaceuticals), and tourism. Malta adopted the Euro currency on 1 January 2008.
Tourist arrivals and foreign exchange earnings derived from tourism have steadily increased since 1987. Following the September 11 attacks, the tourist industry suffered a temporary setback. With the help of a favorable international economic climate, the availability of domestic resources, and industrial policies that support foreign export-oriented investment, the economy has been able to sustain a period of rapid growth. Growingowing public and private sector demand for credit has led—in the context of interest rate controls—to credit rationing to the private sector and the introduction of non-interest charges by banks. Despite these pressures, consumer price inflation has remained low (2.2% according to the Central Bank of Malta in 2007), reflecting the impact of a fixed exchange rate policy (100% hard peg to the euro, in preparation for currency changeover) and lingering price controls.
There is a strong manufacturing base for high value-added products like electronics and pharmaceuticals, and the manufacturing sector has more than 250 foreign-owned, export-oriented enterprises. Tourism generates around 15% of GDP. Film production in Malta is another growing industry (approx. 35 million euros between 1997 and 2011), despite stiff competition from other film locations in Eastern Europe and North Africa, with the Malta Film Commission providing support services to foreign film companies for the production of feature cinema ("Gladiator", "Troy", "Munich", "Count of Monte Cristo" and "World War Z", amongst others, were shot in Malta over the last few years), commercials and television series.
From 2001 to 2004 the mean GDP real growth was 0.4% due to Malta losing pace in tourism and other industries. Unemployment was down to 4.4%, its lowest level in 3 years. Many formerly state-owned companies are being privatised—and the market liberalised.
Fiscal policy has been directed toward bringing down the budget deficit after public debt grew from a negative figure in 1988 to 56% in 1999 and 69.1% in 2009. By 2007, the deficit-to-GDP ratio was comfortably below 3% as required for eurozone membership, but due to pre-election spending has gone up to 4.4% in 2008 and 3.8% in 2009.
Despite a great potential for solar and wind power, Malta produces almost all its electricity from oil, importing 100% of it. Energy and the cost of energy, which is oft-quoted as the highest in Europe, was a key issue in the 2013 election.
Electricity - production:
1,620 GWh (1998)
Electricity - production by source:
"fossil fuel:"
98.6%
"hydro:"
0%
"nuclear:"
0%
"Renewable sources:"
1.4%
"other:"
0% (1998)
Electricity - consumption:
1,507 GWh (1998)
Electricity - exports:
0 kWh (1998)
Electricity - imports:
0 kWh (1998)
Agriculture - products:
potatoes, cauliflower, grapes, wheat, barley, tomatoes, citrus, cut flowers, green peppers; pork, milk, poultry, eggs
Currency:
1 euro = 100 cents since 1 January 2008
previously 1 Maltese lira = 100 cents;
Exchange rates:
Maltese liri (LM) per US$1 – 0.4086 (January 2000), 0.3994 (1999), 0.3885 (1998), 0.3857 (1997), 0.3604 (1996), 0.3529 (1995)
Irrevocably fixed conversion rate to the euro: Maltese liri (LM) per EUR1 - 0.4293 (2007)
Poverty and social exclusion are significant problems in Malta. 15% of Malta's citizens were living below the poverty line as of 2008, which was slightly better than the EU average of 17% at the time.
To address the issue of poverty, on December 24, 2014 Malta addressed poverty in the six branches of social services, health and environment, culture, income and social benefits, education and employment, by unveiling the National Strategic Policy for Poverty Reduction and Social Inclusion; this will stay in effect from 2014-2024. Under this policy, stakeholders will be involved in the discussion of how to reduce hardships experienced by families living in Malta.
Benefits for unemployment are given out based on contributory and non-contributory schemes. Contributory schemes distribute unemployment benefits within 50 weeks of contribution. Non-contributory schemes a Social Unemployment Benefit is granted after a means test to the head of a household. In order to qualify for unemployment benefits, a person must be able to do work and have registered as unemployed.
There are three categories to the Malta registrar of unemployment. People who have never worked fall into category one. Those who quit or were dismissed from their jobs fall into category two. Category three is for people who are currently employed but are looking for other job prospects. Benefits for unemployment are given for 156 days after which a person may qualify for the means tested unemployment assistance. People eligible for unemployment benefits are Maltese citizens who are aged sixteen years or older, people signed up for eligible work-study programs, and citizens outside of Malta who are employed by foreign entities.
Some scholars have noted that Malta's unemployment system has created a dependency on the benefits provided by the system. From 1992-2005, there was an increase in the number of recipients of both short-term and long-term benefits. Additionally, in 2016, 969 Maltese citizens were cut off the employment register for abusing the system. For these reasons, there has been movements from politicians to reduce and reshape the unemployment system. After the election of the Labour Party in 2013, the number of people receiving unemployment benefits dropped by 75%. This same government introduced the "in-work" benefit which forces more people to work while helping the most poor and desperate.
In order to be eligible for in-work benefit, applicants must first have children under the age of 23, and from that point, benefits vary depending on marital status and the number of people employed per family. For a single parent in employment who earns between €6,600-€16,500, they are eligible for a maximum payable rate of up to €1,250 annually per child. For a married couple whose collective income is between €10,000 and is less than €24,000 (the income of one of the spouses must be over €3,000), they are eligible for a maximum payment rate of up to €1,200 annually per child. In 2016, the in-work benefit was extended to married couples where only one parent works, extending the benefit to an additional 3,700 families. For a married couple with only one parent gainfully employed whose income is greater than €6,600 and less than €16,500, they are eligible for a maximum payable rate of up to €350 yearly per child. The in-work benefit is paid quarterly in January, April, July, and October.
At 42.3% in 2017, female workforce participation rate in Malta is relatively low. For over half of Maltese women who stay out of the workforce altogether, they do not receive direct unemployment benefits. Rather, most unemployment benefits are given to men because to receive unemployment benefits, one must first be employed. However, because older women tend to stay out of the workforce, those women who do participate in the workforce tend to be younger and have higher levels of education. This has led to a lower long-term unemployment rate amongst women than men. In 2011, the long-term unemployment rate of women was 2.5% while the long-term unemployment rate of men was 3.3%.
Malta has public and private pension systems. There are two types of contributions for the public pension system: class one and class two. Employed people contribute to class one and those are self-employed contribute to class two. There was a gradual increase in pension age in Malta in the 1950s and 1960s; for example, someone who was born in 1953 needs to be 62 years old in order to collect pensions while another person born in 1960 would have to be 64 years old in order to collect pensions. Another requirement to qualify for a Malta pension program is that a person must have been contributing to the program for a certain time period or they will not be eligible.
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Telecommunications in Malta
This article is an overview of telecommunications in Malta.
Telephones - main lines in use:
229,700 (2012)
Telephones - mobile cellular:
539,500 (2012)
Telephone system:
automatic system satisfies normal requirements
"domestic:"
submarine cables and microwave radio relay between islands
"international:"
2 submarine cables; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)
Radio broadcast stations:
AM 1, FM 18, shortwave 6 (1999)
Radios:
255,000 (1997)
Amateur radio operators:
Approx. 500
Amateur radio repeaters:
1 HF ALE EchoLink Gateway (9H1BBS-L) DTMF Access 145300 CTCSS 77 Hz (Owned by G0DEO/9H1IA)
1 VHF/UHF 9H1IA-L Frequency Agile CrossBand Link CTCSS 151.4 Hz (Owned by G0DEO/9H1IA)
1 VHF (9H1BBS 145.750 MHz CTCSS 77 Hz (Owned by G0DEO/9H1IA)
1 UHF (9H1BBS 433.175 MHz CTCSS 77 Hz (Owned by G0DEO/9H1IA)
2 Microwave Amateur Television ( ATV ) Repeaters ( 9H1ATV built by 9H1LO and run by MARL and 9H1LO/r built and run by 9H1LO )
Amateur radio beacons:
1 HF 6 Meater Beacon 9H1SIX 50.023 MHz JM75fv (Run by MARL Club)
1 HF 10 Meter Band CW Beacon 9H1LO/B on 28.223 MHz
1 HF 30 Meter Band QRSS Beacon 9H1LO/B on 10.140.90 MHz
1 HF 17 Meter Band PSK31 Beacon 9H1LO/B on 18.110.15 MHz
1 VHF 2 Meter Band Beacon 9H1LO/B on 144.500 MHz (currently summer months only)
Television broadcast stations:
6 (2000)
Televisions:
280,000 (1997)
Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
17 (2005)
Broadband Wireless Internet Service Provider Licenses:
3 (2005)
Internet users:
240,600 (2009)
Country code (Top level domain): .mt
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Transport in Malta
The transport system in Malta is small but extensive, and the islands' domestic system of public transport is reliant on buses and taxis, although there were both a railway and a tramway in the past.
Malta's primary international connections are the airport at Gudja and by sea mainly the Grand Harbour, and the Malta Freeport (the 3rd largest transshipment port in the Mediterranean Sea).
Traffic in Malta drives on the left, as in the UK. Car ownership in Malta is exceedingly high given the very small size of the islands. The country has the fifth-highest number of vehicles per capita in the world as of 2009, with 607 motor vehicles per 1,000 people. The number of registered cars in 1990 amounted to 182,254, giving an automobile density of 582 per km².
Malta has 3,096 kilometres of road, 2,704 km (87.3%) of which are paved and 392 km are unpaved as of 2008.
The official road user guide for Malta is "The Highway Code".
Buses are the primary method of public transport for the Maltese Islands and have been in operation there since 1905, offering a cheap and frequent service to many parts of Malta and Gozo. The vast majority of buses on Malta depart from a terminus in Valletta. Malta's buses carried over 40 million passengers in 2015.
The traditional classic Maltese buses, which were in operation until 2011 and still provide tourist-oriented services to this day, have become visitor attractions in their own right due to their uniqueness, and are depicted on many Maltese advertisements to promote tourism as well as on gifts and merchandise for tourists. Prior to their reform there were approximately 500 buses in public transit service, most of them privately owned by the bus drivers themselves, and operated to a unified timetable set by the transport authority. On any one day, half the bus fleet worked on the public transport network (called "route buses"), while the other half were used for private tours and school transport.
In July 2011 a new public transport network was installed by Transport Malta (the regulating authority) and on 3 July 2011 it started being operated by Arriva Malta, which was 66% owned by Arriva Group (owned by German company Deutsche Bahn and 33% owned by Malta's Tumas Group), operating as the sole operator on a 10-year contract and running a new 264-strong fleet of buses in a turquoise and cream livery. Unlike the system it replaced, the buses were owned and operated by a single company with the drivers working as employees of Arriva Malta.
When Arriva ceased operations on 1 January 2014 due to financial difficulties, the company was nationalised as Malta Public Transport by the Maltese government as an interim measure while a new bus operator could be found. As of October 2014 the government has chosen Autobuses Urbanos de León as its preferred bus operator for the country, and although the agreement has yet to be fully determined and signed, it is planned that they will being operation in January 2015.
During the closing days of December 2014, the Times of Malta and other newspapers were reporting that the company had now signed contracts and purchased the existing operation for 8 million euros. They duly took over the business on January 8, 2015 with their takeover being effected as a "soft launch". The existing name - Malta Public Transport - is to be retained instead of using Autobuses Urbanos de León and nothing will have changed from a passenger perspective initially. The buses are to be repainted into a new livery of light green and white and during a press announcement to mark the formal takeover of operations on the day, several repainted buses were lined up for a photo call to show off the new livery, these being two of the leased in 2014 Optare Solos, one of the leased in 2014 Wright Volvos, one each of the new in 2011 King Long XMQ6900J and XMQ6127J buses. By February the sub contracted buses from UBS were replaced - temporarily - with 32 dual-door Mercedes-Benz Citaro buses operated by ALESA (as opposed to the situation until then of sub contracting of both bus and driver from UBS) until new Otokar Vectio C dual-door single deck buses currently on order have arrive later in 2015. These new buses will number 142 in total and used to augment the existing fleet as the revised route network is incrementally rolled out during the course of 2015 with the full service planned not expected to be fully realized until 2016, at which time the 23 million euro subsidy for 2015 will rise to 29 million thereafter.
In January 2019, the Government has said that young people who are between 16 and 20-years old in 2018 can now travel by bus for free. People between 17 and 19-years old will travel for free between the 1st of January 2019 and the 31st of December 2019. The government also said that those who will turn 16 this year, will start travelling for free on their birthday and will keep benefiting from the scheme until their 17th birthday. 20-year olds will benefit until they reach 21.
Between 1883 and 1931 Malta had a railway line that connected the capital city of Valletta to the army barracks at Mtarfa / Mdina and a number of towns and villages.
Malta has three large natural harbours on its main island. There are also two man-made harbours that connect the islands of Malta and Gozo.
A frequent daily passenger and car ferry service runs between the islands of Malta and Gozo between Ċirkewwa Harbour and Mġarr Harbour.
There is also a ferry terminal at the Grand Harbour that connects Malta to Pozzallo and Catania in Sicily.
Malta is one of the ten largest ship registers in the world (6th in 2016) and the largest in the EU, with 66.2 million gt registered. At the end of 2015, there were also 501 yachts on the register.
Malta International Airport is the only airport serving the Maltese Islands. It is built on the land formerly occupied by the RAF Luqa air base. A heliport is also located there, but the scheduled service to Gozo ceased in 2006. From June 2007 to August 2012, a three-times daily floatplane service, operated by HarbourAir Malta, linked the sea terminal in Grand Harbour to Mgarr harbour in Gozo.
In the past there were two further airfields which were in operation during World War II and into the 1960s, located at Ta'Qali and Ħal Far. They have now since been closed, the land on the former has now been converted into a national park, stadium and the Crafts Village visitor attraction. The Malta Aviation Museum is also situated here, preserving several aircraft including Hurricane and Spitfire fighters which defended the island in World War II. Ħal Far has been converted into an industrial estate, a race track and an immigration reception centre.
The national airline is Air Malta.
With its creation in 2010, the Authority for Transport in Malta, or Transport Malta, assumed the functions of the Malta Maritime Authority, the Malta Transport Authority and the Director and Directorate of Civil Aviation on 2010.
The Ministry of Culture of Malta sanctioned Touring Club Malta to set up a Transport Museum.
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Marshall Islands
The Marshall Islands, officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands (), is an island country and a United States associated state near the equator in the Pacific Ocean, slightly west of the International Date Line. Geographically, the country is part of the larger island group of Micronesia. The country's population of 58,413 people (at the 2018 World Bank Census) is spread out over 29 coral atolls, comprising 1,156 individual islands and islets. The capital and largest city is Majuro. It has the largest portion of its territory made of water of any sovereign state, at 97.87%.
The islands share maritime boundaries with the Wake Island to the north, Kiribati to the southeast, Nauru to the south, and Federated States of Micronesia to the west. About 52.3% of Marshall Islanders (27,797 at the 2011 Census) live on Majuro. Data from the United Nations indicates an estimated population in of . In 2016, 73.3% of the population were defined as being "urban". The UN also indicates a population density of 295 per km² (765 people per mi²) and its projected 2020 population is 59,190.
Micronesian colonists reached the Marshall Islands using canoes circa 2nd millennium BC, with interisland navigation made possible using traditional stick charts. They eventually settled here. Islands in the archipelago were first explored by Europeans in the 1520s, starting with Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer in the service of Spain, Juan Sebastián Elcano and Miguel de Saavedra. Spanish explorer Alonso de Salazar reported sighting an atoll in August 1526. Other expeditions by Spanish and English ships followed. The islands derive their name from John Marshall, who visited in 1788. The islands were historically known by the inhabitants as "jolet jen Anij" (Gifts from God).
Spain claimed the islands in 1592, and the European powers recognized its sovereignty over the islands in 1874. They had been part of the Spanish East Indies formally since 1528. Later, Spain sold some of the islands to the German Empire in 1885, and they became part of German New Guinea that year, run by the trading companies doing business in the islands, particularly the Jaluit Company. In World War I the Empire of Japan occupied the Marshall Islands, which in 1920, the League of Nations combined with other former German territories to form the South Seas Mandate. During World War II, the United States took control of the islands in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign in 1944. Nuclear testing began on Bikini Atoll in 1946 and concluded in 1958.
The US government formed the Congress of Micronesia in 1965, a plan for increased self-governance of Pacific islands. The Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands in 1979 provided independence to the Marshall Islands, whose constitution and president (Amata Kabua) were formally recognized by the US. Full sovereignty or self-government was achieved in a Compact of Free Association with the United States. Marshall Islands has been a member of the Pacific Community (SPC) since 1983 and a United Nations member state since 1991. Politically, the Marshall Islands is a presidential republic in free association with the United States, with the US providing defense, subsidies, and access to U.S.-based agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission and the United States Postal Service. With few natural resources, the islands' wealth is based on a service economy, as well as some fishing and agriculture; aid from the United States represents a large percentage of the islands' gross domestic product. The country uses the United States dollar as its currency. In 2018, it also announced plans for a new cryptocurrency to be used as legal tender.
The majority of the citizens of the Republic of Marshall Islands, formed in 1982, are of Marshallese descent, though there are small numbers of immigrants from the United States, China, Philippines, and other Pacific islands. The two official languages are Marshallese, which is one of the Malayo-Polynesian languages; and English. Almost the entire population of the islands practices some religion: three-quarters of the country follows either the United Church of Christ – Congregational in the Marshall Islands (UCCCMI) or the Assemblies of God.
Evidence suggests that around 3,000 years ago successive waves of human migrants from Southeast Asia spread across the Western Pacific Ocean, populating its many small islands. The Marshall Islands were settled by Micronesians in the 2nd millennium BC. Little is known of the islands' early history. Early settlers traveled between the islands by canoe using traditional stick charts.
The Spanish explorer Alonso de Salazar landed there in 1526, and the archipelago came to be known as ""Los Pintados"" ("The Painted (Ones)", possibly referring to the indigenous people first found there), ""Las Hermanas"" ("The Sisters") and ""Los Jardines"" ("The Gardens") within the Spanish Empire. It first fell within the jurisdiction of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, and was then administered by Madrid, through the Captaincy General of the Philippines, upon the independence of Latin America and the dissolution of New Spain starting in 1821.
American whaling ships visited the islands in the 19th century. The first on record was the "Awashonks" in 1835 and last was the "Andrews Hicks" in 1905.
The islands were only formally possessed by Spain for much of their colonial history, and on European maps were grouped with the Caroline Islands which today make up Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia , or alternatively the "Nuevas Filipinas" ("New Philippines"). The islands were mostly left to their own affairs except for short-lived religious missions (documented in 1668 and 1731) during the 16th and 17th centuries. They were largely ignored by European powers except for cartographic demarcation treaties between the Iberian Empires (Portugal and Castilian Spain) in 1529, 1750 and 1777. The archipelago corresponding to the present-day country was independently named by Krusenstern, after British explorer John Marshall, who visited them together with Thomas Gilbert in 1788, en route from Botany Bay to Canton with two ships of the First Fleet, and started to establish German and British trading posts, which were not formally contested by Spain.
The Marshall Islands were formally claimed by Spain in 1874 through its capital in the East Indies, Manila. This marked the start of several strategic moves by the German Empire during the 1870s and 80s to annex them (claiming them to be "by chance unoccupied"). This policy culminated in a tense naval episode in 1885, which did not degenerate into a conflict due to the poor readiness of Spain's naval forces and the unwillingness for open military action from the German side.
Following papal mediation and German compensation of $4.5 million, Spain reached an agreement with Germany in 1885: the 1885 Hispano-German Protocol of Rome. This accord established a protectorate and set up trading stations on the islands of Jaluit (Joló) and Ebon to carry out the flourishing copra (dried coconut meat) trade. Marshallese Iroij (high chiefs) continued to rule under indirect colonial German administration, rendered tacitly effective by the wording in the 1885 Protocol, which demarcated an area subject to Spanish sovereignty (0-11ºN, 133-164ºE) omitting the Eastern Carolines, that is, the Marshall and Gilbert archipelagos, where most of the German trading posts were located. The disputes were rendered moot after the selling of the whole Caroline archipelago to Germany 13 years later.
At the beginning of World War I, Japan assumed control of the Marshall Islands. The Japanese headquarters was established at the German center of administration, Jaluit. On January 31, 1944 American forces landed on Kwajalein atoll and U.S. Marines and Army troops later took control of the islands from the Japanese on February 3, following intense fighting on Kwajalein and Enewetak atolls. In 1947, the United States, as the occupying power, entered into an agreement with the UN Security Council to administer much of Micronesia, including the Marshall Islands, as the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.
From 1946 to 1958, it served as the Pacific Proving Grounds for the United States and was the site of 67 nuclear tests on various atolls. The world's first hydrogen bomb, codenamed "Mike", was tested at the Enewetak atoll in the Marshall Islands on November 1 (local date) in 1952, by the United States.
Nuclear testing began in 1946 on Bikini Atoll after residents were evacuated. Over the years, 67 weapon tests were conducted, including the 15-megaton Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb test, which produced significant fallout in the region. The testing concluded in 1958. Over the years, just one of over 60 islands was cleaned by the US government, and the inhabitants are still waiting for the 2 billion dollars in compensation assessed by the Nuclear Claims Tribunal. Many of the islanders and their descendants still live in exile, as the islands remain contaminated with high levels of radiation.
A significant radar installation was constructed on Kwajalein atoll.
On May 1, 1979, in recognition of the evolving political status of the Marshall Islands, the United States recognized the constitution of the Marshall Islands and the establishment of the Government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The constitution incorporates both American and British constitutional concepts.
There have been a number of local and national elections since the Republic of the Marshall Islands was founded. The United Democratic Party, running on a reform platform, won the 1999 parliamentary election, taking control of the presidency and cabinet.
The islands signed a Compact of Free Association with the United States in 1986. Trusteeship was ended under United Nations Security Council Resolution 683 of December 22, 1990. Until 1999 the islanders received US$180M for continued American use of Kwajalein atoll, US$250M in compensation for nuclear testing, and US$600M in other payments under the compact.
Despite the constitution, the government was largely controlled by Iroij. It was not until 1999, following political corruption allegations, that the aristocratic government was overthrown, with Imata Kabua replaced by the commoner Kessai Note.
The Runit Dome was built on Runit Island to deposit U.S.-produced radioactive soil and debris, including lethal amounts of plutonium. There are ongoing concerns around deterioration of the waste site and a potential radioactive spill.
The Marshall Islands sit atop ancient submerged volcanoes rising from the ocean floor, about halfway between Hawaii and Australia, north of Nauru and Kiribati, east of the Federated States of Micronesia, and south of the disputed U.S. territory of Wake Island, to which it also lays claim. The atolls and islands form two groups: the Ratak (sunrise) and the Ralik (sunset). The two island chains lie approximately parallel to one another, running northwest to southeast, comprising about of ocean but only about of land mass. Each includes 15 to 18 islands and atolls. The country consists of a total of 29 atolls and five individual islands situated in about of the Pacific. The largest atoll with a land area of is Kwajalein. It surrounds a lagoon.
Twenty-four of the atolls and islands are inhabited. The remaining atolls are uninhabited due to poor living conditions, lack of rain, or nuclear contamination. The uninhabited atolls are:
The average altitude above sea level for the entire country is .
In October 2011, the government declared that an area covering nearly of ocean shall be reserved as a shark sanctuary. This is the world's largest shark sanctuary, extending the worldwide ocean area in which sharks are protected from . In protected waters, all shark fishing is banned and all by-catch must be released. However, some have questioned the ability of the Marshall Islands to enforce this zone.
The Marshall Islands also lays claim to Wake Island. While Wake has been administered by the United States since 1899, the Marshallese government refers to it by the name "Enen-kio".
The climate has a dry season from December to April and a wet season from May to November. Many Pacific typhoons begin as tropical storms in the Marshall Islands region, and grow stronger as they move west toward the Mariana Islands and the Philippines.
Due to its very low elevation, the Marshall Islands are threatened by the potential effects of sea level rise. According to the president of Nauru, the Marshall Islands are the most endangered nation in the world due to flooding from climate change.
Population has outstripped the supply of fresh water, usually from rainfall. The northern atolls get of rainfall annually; the southern atolls about twice that. The threat of drought is commonplace throughout the island chains.
Crabs include hermit crabs, and coconut crabs.
Most birds found in the Marshall Islands, with the exception of those few introduced by man, are either sea birds or a migratory species. There are about 70 species of birds, including 31 seabirds. 15 of these species actually nest locally. Sea birds include the black noddy and the white tern. The only land bird is the house sparrow, introduced by man.
There are about 300 species of fish, 250 of which are reef fish.
Historical population figures are unknown. In 1862, the population was estimated at about 10,000. In 1960, the entire population was about 15,000. In the 2011 Census, the number of island residents was 53,158. Over two-thirds of the population live in the capital, Majuro and Ebeye, the secondary urban center, located in Kwajalein Atoll. This excludes many who have relocated elsewhere, primarily to the United States. The Compact of Free Association allows them to freely relocate to the United States and obtain work there. A large concentration of about 4,300 Marshall Islanders have relocated to Springdale, Arkansas, the largest population concentration of natives outside their island home.
Most of the residents are Marshallese, who are of Micronesian origin and migrated from Asia several thousand years ago. A minority of Marshallese have some recent Asian ancestry, mainly Japanese. About one-half of the nation's population lives on Majuro, the capital, and Ebeye, a densely populated island. The outer islands are sparsely populated due to lack of employment opportunities and economic development. Life on the outer atolls is generally traditional.
The official languages of the Marshall Islands are English and Marshallese. Both languages are widely spoken.
Major religious groups in the Republic of the Marshall Islands include the United Church of Christ – Congregational in the Marshall Islands, with 51.5% of the population; the Assemblies of God, 24.2%; the Roman Catholic Church, 8.4%; and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), 8.3%. Also represented are Bukot Nan Jesus (also known as Assembly of God Part Two), 2.2%; Baptist, 1.0%; Seventh-day Adventists, 0.9%; Full Gospel, 0.7%; and the Baha'i Faith, 0.6%. Persons without any religious affiliation account for a very small percentage of the population. There is also a small community of Ahmadiyya Muslims based in Majuro, with the first mosque opening in the capital in September 2012.
During the Castle Bravo test of the first deployable thermonuclear bomb, a miscalculation resulted in the explosion being over twice as large as predicted. The nuclear fallout spread eastward onto the inhabited Rongelap and Rongerik Atolls. These islands were not evacuated before the explosion. Many of the Marshall Islands natives have since suffered from radiation burns and radioactive dusting, suffering the similar fates as the Japanese fishermen aboard the "Daigo Fukuryū Maru", but have received little, if any, compensation from the federal government.
The government of the Marshall Islands operates under a mixed parliamentary-presidential system as set forth in its Constitution. Elections are held every four years in universal suffrage (for all citizens above 18), with each of the twenty-four constituencies (see below) electing one or more representatives (senators) to the lower house of RMI's unicameral legislature, the Nitijela. (Majuro, the capital atoll, elects five senators.) The President, who is head of state as well as head of government, is elected by the 33 senators of the Nitijela. Four of the five Marshallese presidents who have been elected since the Constitution was adopted in 1979 have been traditional paramount chiefs.
In January 2016, senator Hilda Heine was elected by Parliament as the first female president of the Marshall Islands; previous president Casten Nemra lost office after serving two weeks in a vote of no confidence.
Legislative power lies with the Nitijela. The upper house of Parliament, called the Council of Iroij, is an advisory body comprising twelve tribal chiefs. The executive branch consists of the President and the Presidential Cabinet, which consists of ten ministers appointed by the President with the approval of the Nitijela. The twenty-four electoral districts into which the country is divided correspond to the inhabited islands and atolls. There are currently four political parties in the Marshall Islands: Aelon̄ Kein Ad (AKA), United People's Party (UPP), Kien Eo Am (KEA) and United Democratic Party (UDP). Rule is shared by the AKA and the UDP. The following senators are in the legislative body:
The Compact of Free Association with the United States gives the U.S. sole responsibility for international defense of the Marshall Islands. It gives islanders the right to emigrate to the United States and to work there.
The Marshall Islands was admitted to the United Nations based on the Security Council's recommendation on August 9, 1991, in Resolution 704 and the General Assembly's approval on September 17, 1991, in Resolution 46/3. In international politics within the United Nations, the Marshall Islands has often voted consistently with the United States with respect to General Assembly resolutions.
On April 28, 2015, the Iranian navy seized the Marshall Island-flagged MV "Maersk Tigris" near the Strait of Hormuz. The ship had been chartered by Germany's Rickmers Ship Management, which stated that the ship contained no special cargo and no military weapons. The ship was reported to be under the control of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard according to the Pentagon. Tensions escalated in the region due to the intensifying of Saudi-led coalition attacks in Yemen. The Pentagon reported that the destroyer USS "Farragut" and a maritime reconnaissance aircraft were dispatched upon receiving a distress call from the ship "Tigris" and it was also reported that all 34 crew members were detained. US defense officials have said that they would review U.S. defense obligations to the Government of the Marshall Islands in the wake of recent events and also condemned the shots fired at the bridge as "inappropriate". It was reported in May 2015 that Tehran would release the ship after it paid a penalty.
In March 2017, at the 34th regular session of the UN Human Rights Council, Vanuatu made a joint statement on behalf of the Marshall Islands and some other Pacific nations raising human rights violations in the Western New Guinea, which has been occupied by Indonesia since 1963, and requested that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights produce a report. Indonesia rejected allegations. More than 100,000 Papuans have died during a 50-year Papua conflict.
Since 1991 the Republic of Marshall Islands Sea Patrol, a division of Marshall Islands Police, has operated the 160 ton patrol vessel RMIS "Lomor". "Lomor" is one of 22 Pacific Forum patrol vessels Australia provided to smaller nations in the Pacific Forum. While some other nations' missions for their vessels include sovereignty, protection, the terms of the Compact of Free Association restrict "Lomor" to civilian missions, like fishery protection and search and rescue.
Although the ancient skills are now in decline, the Marshallese were once able navigators, using the stars and stick-and-shell charts.
The Marshall Islands have a small club league, including Koober as the most successful club. One tournament was held by "Play Soccer Make Peace". There is a small Football Association on the island of Majuro. The sport of association football in its growth is new to the Marshall Islands. The Marshall Islands does not have a national football team presently. The Marshall Islands is the only sovereign country in the world that does not have a record of a national football match.
Softball and baseball are held under one sports federation in the Marshall Islands. The President is Jeimata Nokko Kabua. Both sports are growing at a fast pace with hundreds of Marshallese people behind the Marshall Islands Baseball / Softball Federation. The Marshall Islands achieved a silver medal in the Micronesian Games in 2012, as well as medals in the SPG Games.
The islands have few natural resources, and their imports far exceed exports. According to the CIA, the value of exports in 2013 was approximately $53.7 million while estimated imports were $133.7 million. Agricultural products include coconuts, tomatoes, melons, taro, breadfruit, fruits, pigs and chickens. Industry is made of the production of copra and craft items, tuna processing and tourism. The GDP in 2016 was an estimated $180 million, with a real growth rate of 1.7%. The GDP per capita was $3,300.
The International Monetary Fund reported in mid-2016 that the economy of the Republic had expanded by about 0.5 percent in the Fiscal Year 2015 thanks to an improved fisheries sector. A surplus of 3% of GDP was recorded "owing to record-high fishing license fees. Growth is expected to rise to about 1.5 percent and inflation to about 0.5 percent in FY2016, as the effects of the drought in earlier 2016 are offset by the resumption of infrastructure projects."
In 2018, the Republic of Marshall Islands passed the Sovereign Currency Act, which made it the first country to issue their own cryptocurrency and certify it as legal tender; the currency is called the "sovereign".
The Marshall Islands plays a vital role in the international shipping industry as a flag of convenience for commercial vessels. The Marshallese registry began operations in 1990, and is managed through a joint venture with International Registries, Inc., a US-based corporation that has offices in major shipping centers worldwide. As of 2017, the Marshallese ship registry was the second largest in the world, after that of Panama.
Unlike some flag countries, there is no requirement that a Marshallese flag vessel be owned by a Marshallese individual or corporation. Following the 2015 seizure of the "MV Maersk Tigris", the United States announced that its treaty obligation to defend the Marshall Islands did not extend to foreign-owned Marshallese flag vessels at sea.
As a result of ship-to-ship transfers by Marshallese flag tanker vessels, the Marshall Islands have statistically been one of the largest importers of crude oil from the United States, despite the fact that the islands have no oil refining capacity.
In 2007, the Marshall Islands joined the International Labour Organization, which means its labor laws will comply with international benchmarks. This may affect business conditions in the islands.
The income tax has two brackets, with rates of 8% and 12%. The corporate tax is 3% of revenue.
United States government assistance is the mainstay of the economy. Under terms of the Amended Compact of Free Association, the U.S. is committed to provide US$57.7 million per year in assistance to the Marshall Islands (RMI) through 2013, and then US$62.7 million through 2023, at which time a trust fund, made up of U.S. and RMI contributions, will begin perpetual annual payouts.
The United States Army maintains the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll. Marshallese land owners receive rent for the base.
Agricultural production is concentrated on small farms. The most important commercial crop is copra, followed by coconut, breadfruit, pandanus, banana, taro and arrowroot. The livestock consists primarily of pigs and chickens.
Small-scale industry is limited to handicrafts, fish processing, and copra.
Majuro is the world's busiest tuna transshipment port in the world, with 704 transshipments totaling 444,393 tons in 2015. Majuro is also a tuna processing center; the Pan Pacific Foods plant exports processed tuna to a number of countries, primarily the United States under the Bumble Bee brand. Fishing license fees, primarily for tuna, provide noteworthy income for the government.
In 1999, a private company built a tuna loining plant with more than 400 employees, mostly women. But the plant closed in 2005 after a failed attempt to convert it to produce tuna steaks, a process that requires half as many employees. Operating costs exceeded revenue, and the plant's owners tried to partner with the government to prevent closure. But government officials personally interested in an economic stake in the plant refused to help. After the plant closed, it was taken over by the government, which had been the guarantor of a $2 million loan to the business.
On September 15, 2007, Witon Barry (of the Tobolar Copra processing plant in the Marshall Islands capital of Majuro) said power authorities, private companies, and entrepreneurs had been experimenting with coconut oil as alternative to diesel fuel for vehicles, power generators, and ships. Coconut trees abound in the Pacific's tropical islands. Copra, the meat of the coconut, yields coconut oil (1 liter for every 6 to 10 coconuts). In 2009, a 57 kW solar power plant was installed, the largest in the Pacific at the time, including New Zealand. It is estimated that 330 kW of solar and 450 kW of wind power would be required to make the College of the Marshall Islands energy self-sufficient. Marshalls Energy Company (MEC), a government entity, provides the islands with electricity. In 2008, 420 solar home systems of 200 Wp each were installed on Ailinglaplap Atoll, sufficient for limited electricity use.
The Ministry of Education is the education agency of the islands. Marshall Islands Public School System operates the state schools in the Marshall Islands.
In the 1994–1995 school year the country had 103 elementary schools and 13 secondary schools. There were 27 private elementary schools and one private high school. Christian groups operated most of the private schools.
Historically the Marshallese population was taught in English first with Marshallese instruction coming later, but this was reversed in the 1990s to keep the islands' cultural heritage and so children could write in Marshallese. Now English language instruction begins in grade 3. Christine McMurray and Roy Smith wrote in "Diseases of Globalization: Socioeconomic Transition and Health" that this could potentially weaken the children's English skills.
There are two tertiary institutions operating in the Marshall Islands, the College of the Marshall Islands and the University of the South Pacific.
The Marshall Islands are served by the Marshall Islands International Airport in Majuro, the Bucholz Army Airfield in Kwajalein, and other small airports and airstrips.
Airlines include United Airlines, Nauru Airlines, Air Marshall Islands, and Asia Pacific Airlines.
The Marshall Islands have several AM and FM radio stations. AM stations are 1098 5 kW V7AB Majuro (Radio Marshalls, national coverage) and 1224 AFN Kwajalein (both public radio) as well as 1557 Micronesia Heatwave. The FM stations are 97.9 V7AD Majuro, V7AA 96.3 FM Uliga and 104.1 V7AA Majuro (Baptist religious). BBC World is broadcast on 98.5 FM Majuro. The most recent station is Power 103.5 which started broadcasting in 2016.
AFRTS stations include 99.9 AFN Kwajalein (country), 101.1 AFN (adult rock) and 102.1 AFN (hot AC).
There is one broadcast television station, MBC-TV operated by the state. Cable TV is available. On cable TV, most programs are shown two weeks later than in North America but news in real time can be viewed on CNN, CNBC and BBC. American Forces Radio and Television also provides TV service to Kwajalein Atoll.
The Marshall Islands National Telecommunications Authority (NTA) provides telephone, cable TV (MHTV), FAX, cellular and Internet services. The Authority is a private corporation with significant ownership by the national government.
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Geography of the Marshall Islands
The Marshall Islands consist of two archipelagic island chains of 30 atolls and 1,152 islands, which form two parallel groups—the "Ratak" (sunrise) chain and the "Ralik" (sunset) chain. The Marshalls are located in the North Pacific Ocean and share maritime boundaries with Micronesia and Kiribati. Two-thirds of the nation's population lives in the capital of Majuro and the settlement of Ebeye. The outer islands are sparsely populated due to lack of employment opportunities and economic development.
The country is located about one-half of the way from Hawaii to Papua New Guinea. The archipelago includes the atolls of Bikini, Enewetak, Kwajalein, Majuro, Rongelap, and Utirik.
The total area of the islands is equal to the size of the City of Washington, DC. The largest atoll with a land area of is Kwajalein. The terrain consists of low coral limestone and sand islands. Natural resources include coconut products, marine products, and deep seabed minerals. Current environmental issues are inadequate supplies of potable water; pollution of Majuro lagoon from household waste and discharges from fishing vessels.
Maritime claims:
"territorial sea:"
12 nautical miles
"contiguous zone:"
24 nm
"exclusive economic zone:"
200 nm
Elevation extremes:
"lowest point:"
Pacific Ocean 0 meters
"highest point:"
unnamed location on Likiep above sea level
Land use:
"arable land:"
11.11%
"permanent crops:"
44.44%
"other:"
44.44% (2011)
Environment - international agreements:
"party to:"
Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands, Whaling
Bikini and Enewetak are former US nuclear test sites; Kwajalein, the famous World War II battleground, is now used as a US missile test range; the island city of Ebeye is the second largest settlement in the Marshall Islands, after the capital of Majuro, and one of the most densely populated locations in the Pacific.
Tropical; hot and humid with a Koeppen-Geiger classification of "Af". The wet season lasts from May to November and the islands border the typhoon belt. Typhoons do pose an infrequent threat from July to mid November.
Due to their low elevation, the Marshall Islands are threatened by the potential effects of sea level rise. According to the President of Nauru, the Marshall Islands are the most endangered nation on Earth due to flooding from climate change.
A study by the University of Plymouth found that the tides move sediment to create higher elevation, which may keep the islands habitable.
This is a list of the extreme points of the Marshall Islands, the points that are farther north, south, east or west than any other location.
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Demographics of the Marshall Islands
This article is about the demographic features of the population of the Marshall Islands, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
The people of the Marshall Islands are of Micronesian origin, which is traced to a combination of peoples who emigrated from Southeast Asia in the remote past. The matrilineal Marshallese culture revolves around a complex system of clans and lineages tied to land ownership.
Virtually all Marshallese are Christian, most of them Protestant (see Religion in the Marshall Islands). Other Christian denominations include Roman Catholicism, the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), Salvation Army, and Jehovah's Witness. There is also a small presence of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and the Bahá'í Faith.
Both Marshallese and English are official languages. Marshallese is spoken by most of the urban population. Both the Nitijela (parliament) and national radio use Marshallese.
The public school system provides education through grade 12, although admission to secondary school is selective. The elementary program employs a bilingual/bicultural curriculum. English is introduced in the first grade. There are two post-secondary institutions in the Marshall Islands: The College of the Marshall Islands and the University of the South Pacific.
The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.
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Communications in the Marshall Islands
This article is about communications systems in the Marshall Islands.
In 2010, the Majuro and Kwajalein Atoll were connected to the Internet using the HANTRU-1 undersea cable to provide high-speed bandwidth. Faster Internet service was rolled out to Majuro and Ebeye on April 1, 2010.
The majority of communication is under the responsibility of "Marshall Islands National Telecommunications Authority".
Newspapers - Marshall Islands Journal: tabloid
The Marshall Islands Journal is a dual language, once a week publication. It is the newspaper of record for the Marshall Islands.
Telephones - main lines in use:
3,000 (1994)
Telephones - mobile cellular:
280 (1994)
Telephone system:
telex services
"domestic:"
Majuro Atoll and Ebeye and Kwajalein islands have regular, seven-digit, direct-dial telephones; other islands interconnected by shortwave radio, telephone (used mostly for government purposes)
"international:"
satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (Pacific Ocean); US Government satellite communications system on Kwajalein
Radio broadcast stations:
AM 3, FM 4, shortwave 0 (1998)
Stations included are:
Television broadcast stations:
3 (of which two are US military stations) (1997) (stations are: MBC-TV, CPN (AFN) - Central Pacific Network (Channel 1) - CPN (AFN) - Central Pacific Network (Channel 2))
Internet Service Providers:
1
Top level domain: The TLD of the Marshall Islands is .mh. However, it's registrar has been defunct. Nearly no websites are currently registered in domain, as it never gained popularity.
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Transportation in the Marshall Islands
Railways:
0 km
Highways:
"total:"
NA km
"paved:"
64.5 km
"unpaved:"
NA km
"note:"
paved roads on major islands (Majuro, Kwajalein), otherwise stone-, coral-, or laterite-surfaced roads and tracks (2002)
Ports and harbors:
Majuro
Merchant marine:
"total:"
342 ships (1,000 GT or over) totaling 14,471,690 GT/
"ships by type:"
bulk 86, cargo 18, chemical tanker 31, combination bulk 4, combination ore/oil 7, container 69, liquified gas 8, multi-functional large load carrier 1, passenger 6, petroleum tanker 106, roll on/roll off 1, short-sea passenger 1, vehicle carrier 1 (2002 est.)
"note:"
a flag of convenience registry; includes the ships of People's Republic of China 1, Cyprus 1, Denmark 9, Germany 70, Greece 54, Hong Kong 2, Japan 4, Monaco 8, Netherlands 8, United Kingdom 3, United States 87, and Uruguay 1 (2002 est.)
Airports:
35 (2009), see list of airports in the Marshall Islands
Airports - with paved runways:
"total:"
5
"1,524 to 2,437 m:"
4 (Eniwetok, IATA airport code ENT; Kwajalein, KWA; and Marshall Islands International, MAJ; Rongelap).
"914 to 1,523 m:"
1 (2009)
Airports and airstrips - with unpaved runways:
"total:"
30
"914 to 1,523 m:"
29
"under 914 m:"
1 (2009)
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Mass deacidification
Mass deacidification is a term used in library and information science for one possible measure against the degradation of paper in old books, the so-called "slow fires". The goal of the process is to increase the pH of acidic paper on a large scale. Although acid-free paper has become more common, a large body of acidic paper still exists in books made after the 1850s because of its cheaper and simpler production methods. Acidic paper, especially when exposed to light, air pollution, or high relative humidity, yellows and becomes brittle over time. During mass deacidification an alkaline agent is deposited in the paper to neutralize existing acid and prevent further decay.
Several commercial deacidification techniques are on the market .
BookKeeper, CSC Booksaver, Papersave and Wei T'o are also available as hand-held sprays.
These are the results that the Library of Congress expected of an ideal mass deacidification treatment in 1994.
Faculty members of the Slovak University of Technology added these further requirements.
All of the processes imparted an adequately high pH in studies conducted by the European Commission on Preservation and Access, the Library of Congress, and a team of scientists from the Centre de Recherches sur la Conservation des Documents Graphiques in the early and mid-nineties. BookKeeper produced a pH of 9-10. CSC Book Saver gives a pH of 8.78-10.5. Wei T'o gives 7.5 to 10.4, and Papersave gives a pH of 7.5-9.
The same studies also found that the processes had adverse cosmetic side effects. BookKeeper left "a palpable residue", clamp marks on the covers, and caused some of the colored inks to rub off. CSC Book Saver left a "white powdery deposit" on books. Papersave caused "discoloration, white deposit, Newton rings, bleeding of inks and dyes, odor and different "feel" of the paper." Wei T'o caused "odor, white residues, rings, cockling, (yellow) discolorations and adhesive bleeding."
Conservators from the British Library acknowledge that the existing mass deacidification processes are still developing and further research needs to be conducted on their chemical and mechanical effects.
Mass deacidification — along with microfilm and lamination — was developed during the early- and mid-20th century as a response to the chemical process of hydrolysis by which the fibers that constitute paper, providing its structure and strength, have their bonds broken, resulting in paper that becomes increasingly brittle over time. Environmental pollutants can react with paper to form acids that promote oxidation, creating more acid as a by-product, which results in a positive feedback loop of autocatalytic destruction. Supported in part by grants from the Council on Library Resources, William J. Barrow conducted research into paper decay and found that no more than three percent of the books published between 1900 and 1949 would survive more than fifty years. In response to this, a Standing Committee on the Preservation of Research Library Materials was formed by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) in 1960.
Barrow also invented an aqueous process to neutralize acid in paper while depositing an alkaline buffer that would retard the rate of decay. In addition to Barrow's original method, both non-aqueous — employing organic solvents — and vaporous — the Library of Congress' DEZ (diethyl zinc) treatment — methods of achieving the same results have been researched in an attempt to reduce time, labor, and cost requirements.
One technique proposed was to place books in an evacuated chamber, then introduce diethylzinc (DEZ). In theory, the diethylzinc would react with acidic residues in the paper, leaving an alkaline residue that would protect the paper against further degradation. In practice, the heating required to remove trace water from the books before reaction (DEZ reacts violently with water) caused an accelerated degradation of the paper, and a range of other chemical reactions between DEZ and other components of the book (glues, bindings) caused further damage and the production of unpleasant smells. Regardless, in the 1980s, a pilot plant for mass deacidification using this process was constructed by NASA and was tested on books provided by the Library of Congress. However, it was discovered in 1986 that the DEZ had not been removed in one of the deacidification runs and was pooled in the bottom of the chamber, and probably remained within some of the plumbing. DEZ is violently flammable when it comes in contact with either oxygen or water vapor, so the vacuum chamber could not be opened to remove the books within. Eventually, explosives were used to rupture the suspect plumbing; suspicions of the presence of residual DEZ were confirmed by the subsequent fire that destroyed the plant. In his book Double Fold, Nicholson Baker discusses the failure of the NASA program at great length.
The chemical company Akzo made later attempts at refining the process; though the risks of fire and explosions were reduced by better process design, damage and odours remained a problem. In the end, Akzo decided the process was not a viable commercial proposition, and shut down their research at the end of 1994.
While deacidification has been adopted by major research libraries such as the Library of Congress and the New York Public Library, it is not clear that many archives, particularly those in the United States, have followed suit. Whereas some European national archives have tested deacidification techniques, the United States' National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), which pioneered an aqueous technique that improved upon Barrow's, has chosen to invest its preservation dollars elsewhere. In 2000, the Chief of the NARA Document Conservation Laboratory defended the lack of a mass deacidification program by pointing to differences between library and archival collections, for example noting that many of the papers coming to NARA were of a higher quality than those in library collections; that the Archives does not receive records from federal government agencies until they are at least 30 years old, by which time acidic paper will have already been irrevocably weakened; and that limited resources might best be applied elsewhere, such as climate control, as under the Archives' Twenty-Year Preservation Plan, the emphasis was on "maximum benefit for the greatest number of records."
Though now dated, several sources estimate the costs and suitability of deacidification treatment. Studies conducted by the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center and the General State Archive of the Netherlands found the DEZ method, properly used, might be particularly applicable to archival materials. It was estimated that deacidification costs, excluding transportation and handling, during the early 1990s was $5–10 per volume. During 1995-1997, the Library of Congress received $2 million in appropriations to deacidify 72,000 books using the Bookkeeper commercial method and evaluate alternative methods. The actual cost per book was $11.70. Finally, a recent cost comparison with reformatting options per volume yielded $125 for microfilming, $50 for scanning and minimal indexing, and, based on a New York Public Library project, $16.20 for deacidification.
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Mile
The mile is an English unit of length of linear measure equal to 5,280 feet, or 1,760 yards, and standardised as exactly 1,609.344 metres by international agreement in 1959.
With qualifiers, "mile" is also used to describe or translate a wide range of units derived from or roughly equivalent to the Roman mile, such as the nautical mile (now 1.852 km exactly), the Italian mile (roughly 1.852 km), and the Chinese mile (now 500 m exactly). The Romans divided their mile into 5,000 Roman feet but the greater importance of furlongs in pre-modern England meant that the statute mile was made equivalent to 8 furlongs or 5,280 feet in 1593. This form of the mile then spread to the British-colonized nations some of which continue to employ the mile. The US Geological Survey now employs the metre for official purposes but legacy data from its 1927 geodetic datum has meant that a separate US survey mile ( km) continues to see some use. While most countries replaced the mile with the kilometre when switching to the International System of Units, the international mile continues to be used in some countries, such as Liberia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and a number of countries with fewer than one million inhabitants, most of which are UK or US territories, or have close historical ties with the UK or US.
The mile was usually abbreviated m. in the past in the USA but is now written as mi to avoid confusion with the SI metre. In the United Kingdom, road signs still abbreviate mile to "m" and yard to "yds". However, derived units, such as miles per hour or miles per gallon, continue to be abbreviated as mph and mpg, respectively.
The modern English word "mile" derives from Middle English ' and Old English ', which was cognate with all other Germanic terms for "miles". These derived from the nominal ellipsis form of ' (mile) or ' (miles), the Roman mile of one thousand paces.
The present international mile is usually what is understood by the unqualified term "mile". When this distance needs to be distinguished from the nautical mile, the international mile may also be described as a "land mile" or "statute mile". In British English, the "statute mile" may refer to the present international miles or to any other form of English mile since the 1593 Act of Parliament, which set it as a distance of 1,760 yards. Under American law, however, the "statute mile" refers to the US survey mile. Foreign and historical units translated into English as miles usually employ a qualifier to describe the kind of mile being used but this may be omitted if it is obvious from the context, such as a discussion of the 2nd-century Antonine Itinerary describing its distances in terms of "miles" rather than "Roman miles".
The mile has been variously abbreviated—with and without a trailing period—as m, M, ml, and mi. The American National Institute of Standards and Technology now uses and recommends mi to avoid confusion with the SI metre (m) and millilitre (ml). However, derived units such as miles per hour or miles per gallon continue to be abbreviated as mph and mpg rather than mi/h and mi/gal. In the United Kingdom road signs use m as the abbreviation for mile though height and width restrictions also use m as the abbreviation for the metre, which may be displayed alongside feet and inches. The BBC style holds that "There is no acceptable abbreviation for 'miles'" and so it should be spelled out when used in describing areas.
The Roman mile (', "thousand paces"; m.p.; also ' and "") consisted of a thousand paces as measured by every other step—as in the total distance of the left foot hitting the ground 1,000 times. The ancient Romans, marching their armies through uncharted territory, would often push a carved stick in the ground after each 1,000 paces. Well-fed and harshly driven Roman legionaries in good weather thus created longer miles. The distance was indirectly standardised by Agrippa's establishment of a standard Roman foot (Agrippa's own) in 29 BC, and the definition of a pace as 5 feet. An Imperial Roman mile thus denoted 5,000 Roman feet. Surveyors and specialised equipment such as the decempeda and dioptra then spread its use.
In modern times, Agrippa's Imperial Roman mile was empirically estimated to have been about in length.
In Hellenic areas of the Empire, the Roman mile (, "mílion") was used beside the native Greek units as equivalent to 8 stadia of 600 Greek feet. The "mílion" continued to be used as a Byzantine unit and was also used as the name of the zero mile marker for the Byzantine Empire, the Milion, located at the head of the Mese near Hagia Sophia.
The Roman mile also spread throughout Europe, with its local variations giving rise to the different units below.
Also arising from the Roman mile is the milestone. All roads radiated out from the Roman Forum throughout the Empire – 50,000 (Roman) miles of stone-paved roads. At every mile was placed a shaped stone. Originally these were stone obelisks made from granite, marble, or whatever local stone was available. On these was carved a Roman numeral, indicating the number of miles from the centre of Rome – the Forum. Hence, one always knew how far one was from Rome.
The Italian mile (', ') was traditionally considered a direct continuation of the Roman mile, equal to 1000 paces, although its actual value over time or between regions could vary greatly. It was often used in international contexts from the Middle Ages into the 17th century and is thus also known as the "geographical mile", although the geographical mile is now a separate standard unit.
The Arabic mile (, "al-mīl") was not the common Arabic unit of length; instead, Arabs and Persians traditionally used the longer parasang or "Arabic league". The Arabic mile was, however, used by medieval geographers and scientists and constituted a kind of precursor to the nautical or geographical mile. It extended the Roman mile to fit an astronomical approximation of 1 arcminute of latitude measured directly north-and-south along a meridian. Although the precise value of the approximation remains disputed, it was somewhere between 1.8 and 2.0 km.
The "old English mile" of the medieval and early modern periods varied but seems to have measured about 1.3 international miles (2.1 km). The English long continued the Roman computations of the mile as 5000 feet, 1000 paces, or 8 longer divisions, which they equated with their "furrow's length" or furlong.
The origins of English units are "extremely vague and uncertain", but seem to have been a combination of the Roman system with native British and Germanic systems both derived from multiples of the barleycorn. Probably by the reign of Edgar in the 10th century, the nominal prototype physical standard of English length was an arm-length iron bar (a yardstick) held by the king at Winchester; the foot was then one-third of its length. Henry I was said to have made a new standard in 1101 based on his own arm. Following the issuance of Magna Carta, the barons of Parliament directed John and his son to keep the king's standard measure ("") and weight at the Exchequer, which thereafter verified local standards until its abolition in the 19th century. New brass standards are known to have been constructed under Henry VII and Elizabeth I.
Arnold's "Customs of London" recorded a mile shorter than previous ones, coming to 0.947 international miles or 1.524 km.
The English statute mile was established by a Weights and Measures Act of Parliament in 1593 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The act on the Composition of Yards and Perches had shortened the length of the foot and its associated measures, causing the two methods of determining the mile to diverge. Owing to the importance of the surveyor's rod in deeds and surveying undertaken under Henry VIII, decreasing the length of the rod by would have amounted to a significant tax increase. Parliament instead opted to maintain the mile of 8 furlongs (which were derived from the rod) and to increase the number of feet per mile from the old Roman value. The applicable passage of the statute reads: "A Mile shall contain eight Furlongs, every Furlong forty Poles, and every Pole shall contain sixteen Foot and half." The statute mile therefore contained 5,280 feet or 1,760 yards. The distance was not uniformly adopted. Robert Morden had multiple scales on his 17th-century maps which included continuing local values: his map of Hampshire, for example, bore two different "miles" with a ratio of and his map of Dorset had three scales with a ratio of . In both cases, the traditional local units remained longer than the statute mile.
The Welsh mile (' or ') was 3 miles and 1470 yards long (6.17 km). It comprised 9000 paces ('), each of 3 Welsh feet (') of 9 inches (""). (The Welsh inch is usually reckoned as equivalent to the English inch.) Along with other Welsh units, it was said to have been codified under Dyfnwal the Bald and Silent and retained unchanged by Hywel the Good. Along with other Welsh units, it was discontinued following the conquest of Wales by the English under Edward I in the 13th century.
The Scots mile was longer than the English mile, as mentioned by Robert Burns in the first verse of his poem "Tam o' Shanter". It comprised 8 (Scots) furlongs divided into 320 falls or faws (Scots rods). It varied from place to place but the most accepted equivalencies are 1,976 Imperial yards (1.123 statute miles or 1.81 km).
It was legally abolished three times: first by a 1685 act of the Scottish Parliament, again by the 1707 Treaty of Union with England, and finally by the Weights and Measures Act 1824. It had continued in use as a customary unit through the 18th century but had become obsolete by its final abolition.
The Irish mile (' or ') measured 2240 yards: approximately 1.27 statute miles or 2.048 kilometres. It was used in Ireland from the 16th century plantations until the 19th century, with residual use into the 20th century. The units were based on "English measure" but used a linear perch measuring as opposed to the English rod of .
The international mile is precisely equal to (or km as a fraction). It was established as part of the 1959 international yard and pound agreement reached by the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Union of South Africa, which resolved small but measurable differences that had arisen from separate physical standards each country had maintained for the yard. As with the earlier statute mile, it continues to comprise 1,760 yards or 5,280 feet.
The old Imperial value of the yard was used in converting measurements to metric values in India in a 1976 Act of the Indian Parliament. However, the current National Topographic Database of the Survey of India is based on the metric WGS-84 datum, which is also used by the Global Positioning System.
The difference from the previous standards was 2 ppm, or about 3.2 millimetres ( inch) per mile. The U.S. standard was slightly longer and the old Imperial standards had been slightly shorter than the international mile. When the international mile was introduced in English-speaking countries, the basic geodetic datum in America was the North American Datum of 1927 (NAD27). This had been constructed by triangulation based on the definition of the foot in the Mendenhall Order of 1893, with 1 foot = metres and the definition was retained for data derived from NAD27, but renamed the "U.S. survey foot" to distinguish it from the international foot.
The exact length of the land mile varied slightly among English-speaking countries until the international yard and pound agreement in 1959 established the yard as exactly 0.9144 metres, giving a mile of exactly 1,609.344 metres. The U.S. adopted this international mile for most purposes, but retained the pre-1959 mile for some land-survey data, terming it the "U. S. survey mile". In the United States, "statute mile" normally refers to the survey mile, about 3.219 mm ( inch) longer than the international mile (the international mile is exactly 0.0002% less than the U.S. survey mile).
While most countries abandoned the mile when switching to the metric system, the international mile continues to be used in some countries, such as Liberia, Myanmar, the United Kingdom and the United States. It is also used in a number of territories with less than a million inhabitants, most of which are U.K. or U.S. territories, or have close historical ties with the U.K. or U.S.: American Samoa, Bahamas, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Falkland Islands, Grenada, Guam, The N. Mariana Islands, Samoa, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & The Grenadines, St. Helena, St. Kitts & Nevis, the Turks & Caicos Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The mile is even encountered in Canada, though this is predominantly in rail transport and horse racing, as the roadways have been metricated since 1977. The Republic of Ireland replaced miles with kilometres, and speeds in miles per hour with kilometres per hour, gradually. The process was completed in 2005.
The U.S. survey mile is 5,280 survey feet, or about 1,609.347 metres. In the United States, the term "statute mile" formally refers to the survey mile, but for most purposes, the difference between the survey mile and the international mile is insignificant—one international mile is U.S. survey miles—so "statute mile" can be used for either. But in some cases, such as in the U.S. State Plane Coordinate Systems (SPCSs), which can stretch over hundreds of miles, the accumulated difference can be significant, so it is important to note that the reference is to the U.S. survey mile.
The United States redefined its yard in 1893, and this resulted in U.S. and Imperial measures of distance having very slightly different lengths.
The North American Datum of 1983 (NAD83), which replaced the NAD27, is defined in metres. State Plane Coordinate Systems were then updated, but the National Geodetic Survey left individual states to decide which (if any) definition of the foot they would use. All State Plane Coordinate Systems are defined in metres, and 42 of the 50 states only use the metre-based State Plane Coordinate Systems. However, eight states also have State Plane Coordinate Systems defined in feet, seven of them in U.S. Survey feet and one in international feet.
State legislation in the U.S. is important for determining which conversion factor from the metric datum is to be used for land surveying and real estate transactions, even though the difference (2 ppm) is hardly significant, given the precision of normal surveying measurements over short distances (usually much less than a mile). Twenty-four states have legislated that surveying measures be based on the U.S. survey foot, eight have legislated that they be based on the international foot, and eighteen have not specified which conversion factor to use.
In October 2019, U.S. National Geodetic Survey and National Institute of Standards and Technology announced their joint intent to retire the U.S. survey foot and U.S. survey mile, as permitted by their 1959 decision, with effect from the end of 2022.
The "nautical mile" was originally defined as one minute of arc along a meridian of the Earth. Navigators use dividers to step off the distance between two points on the navigational chart, then place the open dividers against the minutes-of-latitude scale at the edge of the chart, and read off the distance in nautical miles. The Earth is not perfectly spherical but an oblate spheroid, so the length of a minute of latitude increases by 1% from the equator to the poles. Using the WGS84 ellipsoid, the commonly accepted Earth model for many purposes today, one minute of latitude at the WGS84 equator is 6,046 feet and at the poles is 6,107.5 feet. The average is about 6,076 feet (about 1,852 metres or 1.15 statute miles).
In the United States, the nautical mile was defined in the 19th century as 6,080.2 feet (1,853.249 m), whereas in the United Kingdom, the "Admiralty nautical mile" was defined as 6,080 feet (1,853.184 m) and was about one minute of latitude in the latitudes of the south of the UK. Other nations had different definitions of the nautical mile, but it is now internationally defined to be exactly .
The nautical mile per hour is known as the knot. Nautical miles and knots are almost universally used for aeronautical and maritime navigation, because of their relationship with degrees and minutes of latitude and the convenience of using the latitude scale on a map for distance measuring.
The data mile is used in radar-related subjects and is equal to 6,000 feet (1.8288 kilometres). The radar mile is a unit of time (in the same way that the light year is a unit of distance), equal to the time required for a radar pulse to travel a distance of two miles (one mile each way). Thus, the radar statute mile is 10.8 μs and the radar nautical mile is 12.4 μs.
The geographical mile is based upon the length of a meridian of latitude. The German geographical mile () was previously ° of latitude (7.4127 km).
Cities in the continental United States often have streets laid out by miles. Detroit, Indianapolis, Chicago, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Miami, are several examples. Typically the largest streets are about a mile apart, with others at smaller intervals. In the Manhattan borough of New York City "streets" are close to 20 per mile, while the major numbered "avenues" are about six per mile. (Centerline to centerline, 42nd Street to 22nd Street is supposed to be 5250 feet while 42nd Street to 62nd Street is supposed to be 5276 ft 8 in.)
The informal term "metric mile" is used in some countries, in sports such as track and field athletics and speed skating, to denote a distance of . The 1500 meters is the premier middle distance running event in Olympic sports. In United States high-school competition, the term is sometimes used for a race of .
The Scandinavian mile (') remains in common use in Norway and Sweden, where it has meant precisely 10 km since metrication in 1889. It is used in informal situations and in measurements of fuel consumption, which are often given as litres per '. In formal situations (such as official road signs) and where confusion may occur with international miles, it is avoided in favour of kilometres.
The Swedish mile was standardised as 36,000 Swedish feet or 10.687 km in 1649; before that it varied by province from about 6 to 14.485 km.
Before metrication, the Norwegian mile was 11.298 km.
The traditional Finnish ' was translated as ' in Swedish and also set equal to 10 km during metrication in 1887, but is much less commonly used.
A comparison of the different lengths for a "mile", in different countries and at different times in history, is given in the table below. Leagues are also included in this list because, in terms of length, they fall in between the short West European miles and the long North, Central and Eastern European miles.
Similar units:
Even in English-speaking countries that have moved from the Imperial to the metric system (for example, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand), the mile is still used in a variety of idioms. These include:
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Spam (Monty Python)
"Spam" is a Monty Python sketch, first televised in 1970 and written by Terry Jones and Michael Palin. In the sketch, two customers are lowered by wires into a greasy spoon café and try to order a breakfast from a menu that includes Spam in almost every dish, much to the consternation of one of the customers. As the waitress recites the Spam-filled menu, a chorus of Viking patrons drown out all conversations with a song, repeating "Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam… Lovely Spam! Wonderful Spam!".
The excessive amount of Spam is a reference to the ubiquity of it and other imported canned meat products in the United Kingdom after World War II (a period of rationing in the UK) as the country struggled to rebuild its agricultural base. Thanks to its wartime ubiquity, the British public grew tired of it.
The televised sketch and several subsequent performances feature Terry Jones as the waitress, Eric Idle as Mr. Bun and Graham Chapman as Mrs. Bun, who does not like Spam. The original sketch also featured John Cleese as The Hungarian and Palin as a historian, but this part was left out of the audio version of the sketch recorded for the team's second album "Another Monty Python Record" (1971). A year later this track was released as the Pythons' first 7" single.
The use of the term "spam" for unsolicited electronic communications is derived from this sketch.
The three-and-a-half-minute sketch is set in the fictional Green Midget Cafe in Bromley. An argument develops between the waitress, who recites a menu in which nearly every dish contains Spam, and Mrs. Bun, who does not like Spam. She asks for a dish without Spam, much to the amazement of her Spam-loving husband. The waitress responds to this request with disgust. Mr. Bun offers to take her Spam instead, and asks for a dish containing a lot of Spam and baked beans. The waitress says the beans are not available; when Mr. Bun asks for a substitution of Spam, the waitress begins reading out the new dish's name.
At several points, a group of Vikings in the restaurant interrupt conversations by loudly singing about Spam. The irate waitress orders them to shut up, but they resume singing more loudly. A Hungarian tourist comes to the counter, trying to order by using a wholly inaccurate Hungarian/English phrasebook (a reference to a previous sketch). He is rapidly escorted away by a police constable.
The sketch abruptly cuts to a historian in a television studio talking about the origin of the Vikings in the café. As he goes on, he begins to increasingly insert the word "Spam" into every sentence, and the backdrop is raised to reveal the restaurant set behind. The historian joins the Vikings in their song, and Mr. and Mrs. Bun are lifted by wires out of the scene while the singing continues. In the original televised performance, the closing credits begin to scroll with the singing still audible in the background.
The sketch premiered on 15 December 1970 as the final sketch of the 25th show of "Monty Python's Flying Circus", and the end credits for the episode were changed so every member of the crew has either Spam or some other food item from the menu added to their names. (Spam Terry Jones, Michael Spam Palin, John Spam John Spam John Spam Cleese, Graham Spam Spam Spam Chapman, Eric Spam Egg and Chips Idle, Terry Spam Sausage Spam Egg Spam Gilliam, etc.) The “Spam” sketch became immensely popular, and was ranked the fifth favourite Python sketch in a poll. The word "Spam" is uttered at least 132 times. The Vikings' Spam song is a parody of "The Viking Song" by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.
This sketch has also been featured in several Monty Python videos including "Parrot Sketch Not Included - 20 Years of Monty Python". A lead sheet for the song appears in "Monty Python's Big Red Book". The DVD release of the episode contains a deliberate subtitling error. When the Hungarian tries to order food, his words are "My lower intestine is full of Spam, Egg, Spam, Bacon, Spam, Tomatoes, Spam." Yet the subtitles read "Your intestine is full of Sperm." This is a continuation of the "Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook" sketch from the same episode.
The audio version of the sketch excludes the Hungarian and historian, and instead has the Vikings reaching a dramatic crescendo. The waitress, resigned to these disruptions, mutters "Bloody Vikings!" In the 2014 version of the sketch performed in "Monty Python Live (Mostly)", one of the Vikings replies "Racist bastard!" before leading the group into an operatic chorus that includes a sampling of "Finland" from the team's "Contractual Obligation Album".
Spam was a popular food during World War II in the UK. A wartime teenager in Grantham, Lincolnshire, Margaret Thatcher remembered the excitement of opening a tin of Spam one Boxing Day for lunch. Although rationed, it was generally easily available and not subject to supply shortages, as were other meats. Thanks to its wartime ubiquity, the British public eventually tired of it.
The phenomenon, some years later, of marketers drowning out discourse by flooding Usenet newsgroups and individuals' email with junk mail advertising messages was named spamming, due to some early internet users that flooded forums with the word "spam" recounting the repetitive and unwanted presence of spam in the sketch. This phenomenon has been reported in court decisions handed down in lawsuits against spammers – see, for example, "CompuServe Inc. v. Cyber Promotions, Inc.", 962 F.Supp. 1015, n. 1 (S.D.Ohio 1997). Furthermore, it has been referenced in an Electronic Frontier Foundation amicus curiae brief to the Supreme Court of the United States in 2014. The term also is used to refer to mass marketing using junk phone calls or text messages, and has since entered video game culture as a term to refer to producing a large quantity of something, such as rocket-spamming or grenade-spamming.
The Python programming language, named after Monty Python, prefers to use spam, ham, and eggs as metasyntactic variables, instead of the traditional foo, bar and baz.
Spam makers Hormel, while never happy with the use of the word "spam" for junk email (which also happens to be derived from the sketch), have been supportive of Monty Python and their sketch. Hormel issued a special tin of Spam for the Broadway premiere of Eric Idle's musical "Spamalot" based on "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". The sketch is part of the company's Spam Museum in Austin, Minnesota, United States, and also mentioned in Spam's on-can advertisements for the product's 70th anniversary in 2007 – although the date of the Python sketch was incorrectly stated to be 1971 instead of 1970.
In 2007 the company decided that such publicity was part of their corporate image, and sponsored a game where their product is strongly associated with Monty Python, featuring a product with "Stinky French Garlic" as part of the promotion of "Spamalot". For the company's 75th anniversary in 2012, they introduced Sir Can-A-Lot, a knight character, appearing on the product's packaging with the phrase "Glorious SPAM®!".
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19160
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Dead Parrot sketch
The "Dead Parrot Sketch", alternatively and originally known as the "Pet Shop Sketch" or "Parrot Sketch", is a sketch from "Monty Python's Flying Circus" about a non-existent species of parrot, called a "Norwegian Blue". A satire on poor customer service, it was written by John Cleese and Graham Chapman and initially performed in the show's first series, in the eighth episode ("Full Frontal Nudity", which first aired 7 December 1969).
The sketch portrays a conflict between disgruntled customer Mr Praline (played by Cleese) and a shopkeeper (Michael Palin), who argue whether or not a recently purchased parrot is dead.
Over the years, Cleese and Palin have performed many versions of the "Dead Parrot" sketch for television shows, record albums, and live performances. "Dead Parrot" was voted the top alternative comedy sketch in a "Radio Times" poll.
Mr. Praline (Cleese) enters the pet shop to register a complaint about the dead Norwegian Blue parrot (parrots are not endemic to Norway) just as the shopkeeper (Palin) is preparing to close the establishment for lunch. Despite being told that the bird is deceased and that it had been nailed to its perch, the proprietor insists that it is "pining for the fjords" or simply "stunned".
As the exasperated Praline attempts to wake up the parrot, the shopkeeper tries to make the bird move by hitting the cage, and Praline erupts into a rage after banging "Polly Parrot" on the counter. After listing several euphemisms for death ("is no more", "has ceased to be", "bereft of life, it rests in peace", and "this is an ex-parrot") he is told to go to the pet shop run by the shopkeeper's brother in Bolton for a refund. That proves difficult, as the proprietor of that store (who is really the shopkeeper, save for a fake moustache) claims this is Ipswich, whereas the railway station attendant (Terry Jones) claims he is actually in Bolton after all.
Confronting the shopkeeper's "brother" for lying, the shopkeeper claims he was playing a prank on Praline by sending him to Ipswich, which was a palindrome for Bolton; Praline points out that the shopkeeper was wrong because a palindrome for Bolton would have been "Notlob".
Just as Praline has decided that "this is getting too silly", Graham Chapman's no-nonsense Colonel bursts in and orders the sketch stopped.
The "Dead Parrot" sketch was inspired by a "Car Salesman" sketch that Palin and Chapman had done in "How to Irritate People". In it, Palin played a car salesman who repeatedly refused to admit that there was anything wrong with his customer's (Chapman) car, even as it fell apart in front of him. That sketch was based on an actual incident between Palin and a car salesman. In "Monty Python Live at Aspen", Palin said that this salesman "had an excuse for everything". John Cleese said on the same show that he and Chapman "believed that there was something very funny there, if we could find the right context for it". In early drafts of what would become the Dead Parrot Sketch, the frustrated customer was trying to return a faulty toaster to a shop. Chapman realised that it needed to be "madder", and came up with the parrot idea.
In the film "And Now For Something Completely Different" (1971), the sketch ends with the shopkeeper explaining that he always wanted to be a lumberjack and, ignoring Mr Praline's protests of that being irrelevant, begins singing "The Lumberjack Song".
The "Monty Python Live at Drury Lane" album features a live version of the sketch, which is slightly different from the TV version. Praline's rant about the deceased parrot includes "He fucking snuffed it!" Also, the sketch ends with the shopkeeper saying that he has a slug that does talk. Cleese, after a brief pause, says, "Right, I'll have that one, then!" According to Michael Palin's published diary, Palin changed his response in order to throw Cleese off. During this performance something occurs on stage that does not translate into audio, but causes the audience to break into hysterics upon Cleese's follow-up line "Now that's what I call a dead parrot".
A live performance from the 1976 Amnesty International benefit show, "A Poke in the Eye (With a Sharp Stick)", has Palin cracking up while Cleese declares "Pining for the fjords? What kind of talk is that?" The audience cheers this bit of breaking character, but Palin quickly composes himself and Cleese declares "Now, look! This is nothing to laugh at!" before proceeding with the sketch. This version can be seen in the film "Pleasure At Her Majesty's", albeit with the ending removed.
The 1976 "Monty Python Live at City Center" performance ended with the following punchline:
In his appearance on "The Muppet Show", Cleese appears as a pirate attempting to take over a spaceship during a "Pigs In Space" sketch. At the end of the sketch, he demands of the smart-mouthed talking parrot on his shoulder, "Do you want to be an ex-parrot?"
In 1980, the sketch was performed again during The Pythons' four-night stint at the Hollywood Bowl. However, it was one of the sketches to be cut from the 1982 film version. In the 1989 TV special which saw the final appearance of all six Pythons together, the sketch appeared in the title, "Parrot Sketch Not Included – 20 Years of Monty Python". True to its title, the “Dead Parrot sketch” is not included.
In 1989's Amnesty benefit show, "The Secret Policeman's Biggest Ball", the sketch opens similarly, but ends very differently:
In a 1997 "Saturday Night Live" performance of the sketch, Cleese added a line to the rant: "Its metabolic processes are a matter of interest only to historians!" In an interview on NPR's "Fresh Air", Palin attributed an almost dead audience to his seeing guests reverently mouthing the words of the sketch, rather than laughing at it. To end the sketch, Palin asked Cleese, "Do you want to come back to my place?" to which Cleese said, "I thought you'd never ask!"
In his published diary, Michael Palin recalls that during the filming of "Monty Python's Life of Brian" in Tunisia, Spike Milligan (who happened to be there on holiday) regaled the Pythons with his own version of the Dead Parrot sketch, but changed "Norwegian Blue" to "Arctic Grey".
In a 2002 interview with Michael Parkinson, John Cleese said that when he and Palin were performing the sketch on Drury Lane, Palin made him laugh by saying, when asked if his slug could talk, "It mutters a bit" instead of "Not really." When Cleese eventually stopped laughing, he couldn't remember where they were in the sketch. He turned to the audience and asked them what the next line was, and people shouted it at him, causing him to wonder, "What is the point of this?" He also says that when he and Palin were asked to do the sketch for "Saturday Night Live" they sat down together to try to remember the lines, and when they got stuck they considered just going out and stopping somebody on the street to ask how it went, since everybody seemed to have it memorised.
Margaret Thatcher famously used the sketch in a speech at the Conservative Party Conference in 1990, referring to the Liberal Democrats and their symbol being a dove, before ending the speech by commenting, "And now for something completely different." In 1998, "The Sun" ran the front-page headline "This party is no more...it has ceased to be...this is an EX-party" for an article about a Conservative Party conference.
For the 1999 "Python Night - 30 Years of Monty Python" TV special, Trey Parker and Matt Stone made a "South Park" version of the sketch depicting Cartman angrily returning a dead Kenny to Kyle's shop. Using much of the dialogue from the original sketch, it ends with Terry Gilliam's animations playing around with Cartman before everything is crushed by the giant foot.
Cleese and Palin acted out the sketch during the Python's reunion in The O2 in July 2014, "Monty Python Live (Mostly)". The sketch ended with the shopkeeper saying he has a selection of cheeses, transitioning into the Cheese Shop Sketch. The entire sketch ended like the City Center performance, with the shopkeeper offering Mr Praline to come back to his place, and Mr Praline replying "I thought you'd never ask." In their final performance on 20 July (which was broadcast live to many theatres all over the world), whilst listing the metaphors for the parrot's death, Cleese added the line "it had expired and gone to meet Dr. Chapman" after which both Cleese and Palin did a thumbs-up to the sky.
In the episode of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" from 13 November 2015, John Cleese is a guest on the show. At the end of the big furry hat segment (where Colbert and in this specific instance Cleese, create nonsensical rules), Cleese says, "Do you want to come back to my place?" and Stephen answers, "I thought you'd never ask."
At Graham Chapman's memorial service, John Cleese began his eulogy by reprising euphemisms from the sketch.
Part or all of the dead parrot sketch is quoted in several television programmes, among them the "Life of Python" sketch from "Not the Nine O'Clock News" (a parody of the "Friday Night, Saturday Morning" debate on "Life of Brian") and "The Early Bird", an episode from the third season of "Death in Paradise".
When paleontologists published a paper announcing the discovery of a fossil parrot in Denmark, lead author Dr David Waterhouse alluded to the Dead Parrot Sketch, saying, "Obviously, we are dealing with a bird that is bereft of life, but the tricky bit is establishing that it was a parrot." However, he declared that this bird could never have been pining for the fjords, explaining, "This parrot shuffled off its mortal coil around 55 million years ago, but the fjords of Norway were formed during the last ice age and are less than a million years old."
During the Monty Python Reunion at London's O2 Arena in 2014, UKTV channel Gold commissioned sculptor Iain Prendergast to create a giant fiberglass version of the mythical “Norwegian Blue”. The 50 foot long (15m) bird was displayed, appropriately "resting" on its back, at Potters Fields Park in South London, in view of Tower Bridge.
A joke dated AD 400, translated from Greek in 2008, shows similarities to the Parrot sketch. It was written by Hierocles and Philagrius and was included in a compilation of 265 jokes titled "Philogelos: The Laugh Addict". In the Greek version, a man complains to a slave-merchant that his new slave has died. The slave-merchant replies, "When he was with me, he never did any such thing!"
In Mark Twain's humorous short story "A Nevada Funeral", two characters use a series of euphemisms for death including 'kicked the bucket' and 'departed to that mysterious country from whose bourne no traveller returns'.
In 1963, Benny Hill performed a sketch entitled "The Taxidermist" (written by Dave Freeman) on "The Benny Hill Show" in which he attempted to pass off a stuffed duck as a parrot (blaming its different appearance on "the steaming" and "the shrinkage"). John Cleese later admitted that he watched Hill's show during this period, but didn't recall this particular piece.
In the 1960s Freddie "Parrot Face" Davies included an obviously stuffed caged parrot as part of his stage routine, occasionally complaining that he had been swindled by the seller.
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Cheese Shop sketch
The Cheese Shop is a well-known sketch from "Monty Python's Flying Circus".
It originally appeared in episode 33, "Salad Days". The script for the sketch is included in the book "The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus: All the Words, Volume 2".
It was later reworked for the album "The Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief" and appeared for one last time during "Monty Python Live (Mostly)", as a surprising coda to the Dead Parrot sketch.
The idea for the sketch came after a day of shooting in Folkestone Harbour, where John Cleese became seasick and threw up repeatedly while trying to deliver a line. During the drive back, Graham Chapman recommended that Cleese eat something and asked him what he wanted; Cleese replied that he fancied a piece of cheese. Upon seeing a chemist's shop, Cleese pondered whether the shop would sell cheese, to which Chapman responded that if they did it would be medicinal cheese and that Cleese would need a prescription to buy some. Giggling, they decided to write a sketch based on that idea. However, on starting to write it, they concluded that asking for cheese in a chemist's shop was too unrealistic without being set up. Wondering why someone would attempt to buy cheese somewhere other than a cheese shop, Cleese thought that they should write a sketch about someone attempting to buy cheese in a cheese shop that had no cheese whatsoever to set up a sketch revolving around someone attempting to buy cheese at a chemist's which never wound up happening.
Chapman then wrote the sketch with Cleese, who did not initially find it humorous. When Chapman insisted that it was funny, they presented it at a reading for the other Python members. Though most of the other Pythons were also unimpressed, Michael Palin loved it and laughed hysterically, eventually falling to the floor. This amused the others and they agreed to use the sketch.
Cleese plays an erudite customer (Mr. Mousebender in the script) attempting to purchase some cheese from ""Ye National Cheese Emporium", purveyor of fine cheese to the gentry (and the poverty-stricken too)". The proprietor (Palin), Mr. Arthur Wensleydale (Henry Wensleydale in the TV version), appears to have nothing in stock, not even cheddar, "the single most popular cheese in the world". A slow crescendo of bouzouki music plays in the background performed by Joe Moretti, as Terry Jones and Graham Chapman dance while dressed in bowler hats and business suits. Cleese initially expresses appreciation of the music, being "one who delights in all manifestations of the Terpsichorean Muse", but as the sketch progresses it mirrors Cleese's growing frustration until he loudly demands the music cease. As Cleese lists increasingly obscure, unsavoury, and, in one instance fictional, cheeses to no avail, the proprietor offers weak excuses such as "Ohh! The cat's eaten it." Cleese remarks that it is not much of a cheese shop, but Palin insists it is the best in the district due to its cleanliness, to which Cleese replies "Well, it's certainly uncontaminated by cheese." Eventually, Cleese asks if Palin has any cheese at all, to which Palin replies "yes". Cleese then tells him that he will ask the question again, and if Palin says "no", he will shoot him "through" the head. Palin answers "no" the second time, and Cleese immediately shoots him, then muses, "What a senseless waste of human life!" He then puts on a Stetson, and the sketch segues into Hugh Walpole's "Rogue Cheddar" and a link to the Sam Peckinpah's "Salad Days" sketch.
Forty-three cheeses are mentioned in the original sketch. In the audio version on "The Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief" (MT&H) album and other live and recorded versions, Cleese also mentions Greek feta. In Monty Python Live Mostly, Stinking Bishop, Armenian String Cheese and Zimbabwean Rhinoceros Milk Cheese were also added to the list.
Color coding of table entries:
The table that follows lists the cheeses mentioned, in order of appearance, the reason given as to why they are unavailable to be purchased, as well as the source (Original sketch, other version(s)) in which that cheese was mentioned.
"Venezuelan Beaver Cheese" is a fictitious type of cheese but it has been mentioned in "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life" (PC game), Sierra's computer adventure game , and in the webcomic "Triangle and Robert".
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19162
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Bruces' Philosophers Song
"Bruces' Philosophers Song", also known as "The Bruces' Song", is a popular Monty Python song written and composed by Eric Idle that was a feature of the group's stage appearances and its recordings.
The Bruces' Philosophers Song is sung by The Bruces, stereotypical "ocker" Australians of the period. The Bruces are kitted out in khakis, slouch hats and a cork hat and are faculty members of the Philosophy Department at the fictional University of Woolamaloo. (There is no such place as Woolamaloo in Australia; but Woolloomooloo is an inner suburb of Sydney. There is no university there, although the real-life University of Sydney is not far away.)
The Bruces themselves first appeared in the Bruces sketch which featured in episode 22, "How to Recognise Different Parts of the Body", of the TV show "Monty Python's Flying Circus", first broadcast on 24 November 1970. The sketch shows an English academic (played by Terry Jones) coming to a hot and perhaps remote part of Australia and being inducted by the Bruces (Cleese, Chapman, Idle and Palin) into their Philosophy Department, seemingly located in a simple wooden shack. The Bruces are lounging around a wooden table and soon start drinking cans of Foster's Lager.
The song was not part of the TV sketch; it first appeared on the Monty Python's 1973 album "Matching Tie and Handkerchief" as a coda for the album version of the sketch. The song was subsequently included in most of the Monty Python team's live shows, sometimes as a singalong with musical accompaniment provided by a Jew's harp.
The song's lyrics make a series of scandalous allegations about a number of highly respected philosophers, usually with regard to their capacity or incapacity for imbibing intoxicating beverages.
There is a discrepancy over whether the sixth line refers to "Schopenhauer and Hegel" or merely "Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel." The reason for the confusion is that existing live recordings of the song (included in the "Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl" film and on the albums "Live at Drury Lane" and "Live at City Center") have the "Schopenhauer and Hegel" version, while the studio recording on "Matching Tie and Handkerchief" features the "Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel" version. The publication of the lyrics with the release of "Monty Python Sings" suggests that the "Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel" version is the official one. (The reason for the change of lyric may be that the philosopher in question's name is actually "Georg" Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and that Georg is pronounced in German with two syllables (GAY-org) making it difficult for the philosopher's full name to fit in the song.)
All the philosophers whom the song mentions were dead by the time it appeared, apart from Martin Heidegger.
Philosophers mentioned in the song (in order):
Some of the philosophers seem to be portrayed according to their works.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19163
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The Spanish Inquisition (Monty Python)
"The Spanish Inquisition" is a series of sketches in "Monty Python's Flying Circus", Series 2 Episode 2, first broadcast 22 September 1970, parodying the real-life Spanish Inquisition. This episode is itself entitled "The Spanish Inquisition". The sketches are notable for their principal catchphrase, "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!", which has become a frequently used quote. The end of the sketch uses music from the composition "Devil's Galop" by Charles Williams. Rewritten audio versions of the sketches were included on "Another Monty Python Record" in 1971.
This is a recurring sketch always predicated on an unrelated sketch in which one character mentions that they "didn't expect a Spanish Inquisition!", often in irritation at being questioned by another. The first appearance of the Spanish Inquisition occurs in a drawing room set in "Jarrow, 1912," with a title card featuring a modern British urban area with a nuclear power plant. A mill worker (Graham Chapman) enters the room and tells a woman sitting on a couch knitting (Carol Cleveland) that "one of the cross beams has gone out askew on the treadle". When she says that he doesn't know what he's talking about, the mill worker gets defensive and says, "I didn't expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition!" Then the Inquisition—consisting of Cardinal Ximénez (Michael Palin) and his assistants, Cardinal Biggles (Terry Jones) (who resembles his namesake Biggles wearing a leather aviator's helmet and goggles) and Cardinal Fang (Terry Gilliam)—burst into the room to the sound of a jarring musical sting. Ximénez shouts, with a particular and high-pitched emphasis on the first word: "NO-body expects the Spanish Inquisition!"
After entering, Ximénez begins listing their weapons ("fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, fanatical devotion to the Pope, nice red uniforms"), but interrupts himself as he keeps forgetting to mention additional weapons and has to begin his list over again. After several attempts, Ximénez states that he will come in again, and herds the Inquisition back off the set. The straight man mill worker repeats the cue line, the Inquisition bursts back in (complete with jarring chord), and the introduction is tried anew. But Ximénez fails again and tries to get Cardinal Biggles to do the introduction, but Biggles is also unsuccessful.
Ximénez decides to forget the introduction and has Cardinal Fang read out charges of heresy against the woman. The woman pleads innocent, and the cardinals respond with laughter (as an on-screen caption reads "DIABOLICAL LAUGHTER") and threats (as the on-screen caption changes to "DIABOLICAL ACTING"). Ximénez intends to torture the woman with "the rack", but Cardinal Biggles instead produces a dish-drying rack. This rack is tied to the woman as Biggles pretends to turn a lever, but it has no effect whatsoever. As they work, the mill worker answers the door to find a BBC employee (John Cleese) requesting him to open a door for a gag on "the neighboring sketch", leading into the "Jokes and Novelties Salesman" segment.
The Inquisition returns in a later sketch as an older woman (Marjorie Wilde) shares photographs from a scrapbook with another woman (Cleveland), who rips them up as they are handed to her. When the older woman presents a photo of the Spanish Inquisition hiding behind the coal shed, the other woman says, "I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition!" The three cardinals then reappear and take the older woman away to a dungeon.
Biggles tries to torture the woman by poking her repeatedly with soft cushions. When this fails, Ximénez orders Fang to get "the comfy chair", which is brought out and the woman placed in it. Ximénez states that she must stay in the chair "until lunch time with only a cup of coffee at 11", and begins to shout at her to confess—only to have Biggles break down and confess. This frustrates Ximénez, but he cannot complain about it since he is distracted by a cartoon character from the next scene.
At the end of the show, in the "Court Charades" sketch, a judge (Jones) who is also a defendant in an obscenity trial at the Old Bailey is casually sentenced by another judge (Chapman) to be burned at the stake. The convicted judge responds, "Blimey, I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition!" The whole court rises and looks expectantly at the witness entrance door. As the closing credits of the episode begin, the Inquisitors race out of a house and hop on a double-decker bus to the Old Bailey, all to the tune of "Devil's Galop". As the Inquisitors ride in the bus, they comment worriedly that they are running out of credits (which are seen on screen) and are panicked that the sketch will soon end. The bus reaches the courthouse and the cardinals charge up the steps of the Old Bailey. They finally burst into the courtroom, only for Ximénez to shout, "NO-body expects the Span—oh, bugger.", as the words "THE END" appear on-screen.
In the "Monty Python Live (Mostly)" stage show the sketch ends when Ximénez orders Biggles to "torture" the victim (who is sitting in the comfy chair) by giving her a glass of cold milk from the fridge. When Biggles opens the door, the Man in the Fridge (Eric Idle) emerges and begins singing the "Galaxy Song" to the victim, while the Inquisition exit through the fridge.
Cardinal Ximénez briefly appears two episodes later ("The Buzz Aldrin Show") in a vox pop, again displaying difficulty counting (in this instance, the kinds of aftershave he uses). Later in that episode during the "Police Constable Pan Am Sketch", the policeman tells a chemist "one more peep out of you and I'll do you for heresy", with the chemist (played by Palin) responding that he "didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition"; except that instead of the Spanish Inquisition arriving, PC Pan Am (played by Graham Chapman) simply tells the chemist to shut up.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19165
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Maxwell's equations
Maxwell's equations are a set of coupled partial differential equations that, together with the Lorentz force law, form the foundation of classical electromagnetism, classical optics, and electric circuits.
The equations provide a mathematical model for electric, optical, and radio technologies, such as power generation, electric motors, wireless communication, lenses, radar etc. They describe how electric and magnetic fields are generated by charges, currents, and changes of the fields. The equations are named after the physicist and mathematician James Clerk Maxwell, who, between 1861 and 1862, published an early form of the equations that included the Lorentz force law. Maxwell first used the equations to propose that light is an electromagnetic phenomenon.
An important consequence of Maxwell's equations is that they demonstrate how fluctuating electric and magnetic fields propagate at a constant speed ("c") in a vacuum. Known as electromagnetic radiation, these waves may occur at various wavelengths to produce a spectrum of light from radio waves to gamma rays.
The equations have two major variants. The microscopic Maxwell equations have universal applicability but are unwieldy for common calculations. They relate the electric and magnetic fields to total charge and total current, including the complicated charges and currents in materials at the atomic scale. The "macroscopic" Maxwell equations define two new auxiliary fields that describe the large-scale behaviour of matter without having to consider atomic scale charges and quantum phenomena like spins. However, their use requires experimentally determined parameters for a phenomenological description of the electromagnetic response of materials.
The term "Maxwell's equations" is often also used for equivalent alternative formulations. Versions of Maxwell's equations based on the electric and magnetic scalar potentials are preferred for explicitly solving the equations as a boundary value problem, analytical mechanics, or for use in quantum mechanics. The covariant formulation (on spacetime rather than space and time separately) makes the compatibility of Maxwell's equations with special relativity manifest. Maxwell's equations in curved spacetime, commonly used in high energy and gravitational physics, are compatible with general relativity. In fact, Albert Einstein developed special and general relativity to accommodate the invariant speed of light, a consequence of Maxwell's equations, with the principle that only relative movement has physical consequences.
The publication of the equations marked the unification of previously described phenomena: magnetism, electricity, light and associated radiation.
Since the mid-20th century, it has been understood that Maxwell's equations are not exact, but a classical limit of the fundamental theory of quantum electrodynamics.
Gauss's law describes the relationship between a static electric field and the electric charges that cause it: a static electric field points away from positive charges and towards negative charges, and the net outflow of the electric field through any closed surface is proportional to the charge enclosed by the surface. Picturing the electric field by its field lines, this means the field lines begin at positive electric charges and end at negative electric charges. 'Counting' the number of field lines passing through a closed surface yields the total charge (including bound charge due to polarization of material) enclosed by that surface, divided by dielectricity of free space (the vacuum permittivity).
Gauss's law for magnetism states that there are no "magnetic charges" (also called magnetic monopoles), analogous to electric charges. Instead, the magnetic field due to materials is generated by a configuration called a dipole, and the net outflow of the magnetic field through any closed surface is zero. Magnetic dipoles are best represented as loops of current but resemble positive and negative 'magnetic charges', inseparably bound together, having no net 'magnetic charge'. In terms of field lines, this equation states that magnetic field lines neither begin nor end but make loops or extend to infinity and back. In other words, any magnetic field line that enters a given volume must somewhere exit that volume. Equivalent technical statements are that the sum total magnetic flux through any Gaussian surface is zero, or that the magnetic field is a solenoidal vector field.
The Maxwell–Faraday version of Faraday's law of induction describes how a time varying magnetic field creates ("induces") an electric field. In integral form, it states that the work per unit charge required to move a charge around a closed loop equals the rate of change of the magnetic flux through the enclosed surface.
The dynamically induced electric field has closed field lines similar to a magnetic field, unless superposed by a static (charge induced) electric field. This aspect of electromagnetic induction is the operating principle behind many electric generators: for example, a rotating bar magnet creates a changing magnetic field, which in turn generates an electric field in a nearby wire.
Ampère's law with Maxwell's addition states that magnetic fields can be generated in two ways: by electric current (this was the original "Ampère's law") and by changing electric fields (this was "Maxwell's addition", which he called displacement current). In integral form, the magnetic field induced around any closed loop is proportional to the electric current plus displacement current (proportional to the rate of change of electric flux) through the enclosed surface.
Maxwell's addition to Ampère's law is particularly important: it makes the set of equations mathematically consistent for non static fields, without changing the laws of Ampere and Gauss for static fields. However, as a consequence, it predicts that a changing magnetic field induces an electric field and vice versa. Therefore, these equations allow self-sustaining "electromagnetic waves" to travel through empty space (see electromagnetic wave equation).
The speed calculated for electromagnetic waves, which could be predicted from experiments on charges and currents, matches the speed of light; indeed, light "is" one form of electromagnetic radiation (as are X-rays, radio waves, and others). Maxwell understood the connection between electromagnetic waves and light in 1861, thereby unifying the theories of electromagnetism and optics.
In the electric and magnetic field formulation there are four equations that determine the fields for given charge and current distribution. A separate law of nature, the Lorentz force law, describes how, conversely, the electric and magnetic fields act on charged particles and currents. A version of this law was included in the original equations by Maxwell but, by convention, is included no longer. The vector calculus formalism below, the work of Oliver Heaviside, has become standard. It is manifestly rotation invariant, and therefore mathematically much more transparent than Maxwell's original 20 equations in x,y,z components. The relativistic formulations are even more symmetric and manifestly Lorentz invariant. For the same equations expressed using tensor calculus or differential forms, see alternative formulations.
The differential and integral formulations are mathematically equivalent and are both useful. The integral formulation relates fields within a region of space to fields on the boundary and can often be used to simplify and directly calculate fields from symmetric distributions of charges and currents. On the other hand, the differential equations are purely "local" and are a more natural starting point for calculating the fields in more complicated (less symmetric) situations, for example using finite element analysis.
Symbols in bold represent vector quantities, and symbols in "italics" represent scalar quantities, unless otherwise indicated.
The equations introduce the electric field, , a vector field, and the magnetic field, , a pseudovector field, each generally having a time and location dependence.
The sources are
The universal constants appearing in the equations (the first two ones explicitly only in the SI units formulation) are:
In the differential equations,
In the integral equations,
Here a "fixed" volume or surface means that it does not change over time.
The equations are correct, complete, and a little easier to interpret with time-independent surfaces. For example, since the surface is time-independent, we can bring the differentiation under the integral sign in Faraday's law:
Maxwell's equations can be formulated with possibly time-dependent surfaces and volumes by using the differential version and using Gauss and Stokes formula appropriately.
The definitions of charge, electric field, and magnetic field can be altered to simplify theoretical calculation, by absorbing dimensioned factors of and into the units of calculation, by convention. With a corresponding change in convention for the Lorentz force law this yields the same physics, i.e. trajectories of charged particles, or work done by an electric motor. These definitions are often preferred in theoretical and high energy physics where it is natural to take the electric and magnetic field with the same units, to simplify the appearance of the electromagnetic tensor: the Lorentz covariant object unifying electric and magnetic field would then contain components with uniform unit and dimension. Such modified definitions are conventionally used with the Gaussian (CGS) units. Using these definitions and conventions, colloquially "in Gaussian units",
the Maxwell equations become:
The equations are particularly readable when length and time are measured in compatible units like seconds and lightseconds i.e. in units such that c = 1 unit of length/unit of time. Ever since 1983 (see International System of Units), metres and seconds are compatible except for historical legacy since "by definition" c = 299 792 458 m/s (≈ 1.0 feet/nanosecond).
Further cosmetic changes, called rationalisations, are possible by absorbing factors of depending on whether we want Coulomb's law or Gauss's law to come out nicely, see Lorentz-Heaviside units (used mainly in particle physics). In theoretical physics it is often useful to choose units such that Planck's constant, the elementary charge, and even Newton's constant are 1. See Planck units.
The equivalence of the differential and integral formulations are a consequence of the Gauss divergence theorem and the Kelvin–Stokes theorem.
According to the (purely mathematical) Gauss divergence theorem, the electric flux through the
boundary surface can be rewritten as
The integral version of Gauss's equation can thus be rewritten as
Since is arbitrary (e.g. an arbitrary small ball with arbitrary center), this is satisfied if and only if the integrand is zero everywhere. This is
the differential equations formulation of Gauss equation up to a trivial rearrangement.
Similarly rewriting the magnetic flux in Gauss's law for magnetism in integral form gives
which is satisfied for all if and only if formula_9 everywhere.
By the Kelvin–Stokes theorem we can rewrite the line integrals of the fields around the closed boundary curve to an integral of the "circulation of the fields" (i.e. their curls) over a surface it bounds, i.e.
Hence the modified Ampere law in integral form can be rewritten as
Since can be chosen arbitrarily, e.g. as an arbitrary small, arbitrary oriented, and arbitrary centered disk, we conclude that the integrand is zero iff Ampere's modified law in differential equations form is satisfied.
The equivalence of Faraday's law in differential and integral form follows likewise.
The line integrals and curls are analogous to quantities in classical fluid dynamics: the circulation of a fluid is the line integral of the fluid's flow velocity field around a closed loop, and the vorticity of the fluid is the curl of the velocity field.
The invariance of charge can be derived as a corollary of Maxwell's equations. The left-hand side of the modified Ampere's Law has zero divergence by the div–curl identity. Expanding the divergence of the right-hand side, interchanging derivatives, and applying Gauss's law gives:
i.e.
By the Gauss Divergence Theorem, this means the rate of change of charge in a fixed volume equals the net current flowing through the boundary:
In particular, in an isolated system the total charge is conserved.
In a region with no charges () and no currents (), such as in a vacuum, Maxwell's equations reduce to:
Taking the curl of the curl equations, and using the curl of the curl identity we obtain
The quantity formula_16 has the dimension of (time/length)2. Defining
formula_17, the equations above have the form of the standard wave equations
Already during Maxwell's lifetime, it was found that the known values for formula_19 and formula_20 give formula_21, then already known to be the speed of light in free space. This led him to propose that light and radio waves were propagating electromagnetic waves, since amply confirmed. In the old SI system of units, the values of formula_22 and formula_23 are defined constants, (which means that by definition formula_24) that define the ampere and the metre. In the new SI system, only "c" keeps its defined value, and the electron charge gets a defined value.
In materials with relative permittivity, , and relative permeability, , the phase velocity of light becomes
which is usually less than .
In addition, and are perpendicular to each other and to the direction of wave propagation, and are in phase with each other. A sinusoidal plane wave is one special solution of these equations. Maxwell's equations explain how these waves can physically propagate through space. The changing magnetic field creates a changing electric field through Faraday's law. In turn, that electric field creates a changing magnetic field through Maxwell's addition to Ampère's law. This perpetual cycle allows these waves, now known as electromagnetic radiation, to move through space at velocity .
The above equations are the "microscopic" version of Maxwell's equations, expressing the electric and the magnetic fields in terms of the (possibly atomic-level) charges and currents present. This is sometimes called the "general" form, but the macroscopic version below is equally general, the difference being one of bookkeeping.
The microscopic version is sometimes called "Maxwell's equations in a vacuum": this refers to the fact that the material medium is not built into the structure of the equations, but appears only in the charge and current terms. The microscopic version was introduced by Lorentz, who tried to use it to derive the macroscopic properties of bulk matter from its microscopic constituents.
"Maxwell's macroscopic equations", also known as Maxwell's equations in matter, are more similar to those that Maxwell introduced himself.
In the "macroscopic" equations, the influence of bound charge and bound current is incorporated into the displacement field and the magnetizing field , while the equations depend only on the free charges and free currents . This reflects a splitting of the total electric charge "Q" and current "I" (and their densities "ρ" and J) into free and bound parts:
The cost of this splitting is that the additional fields and need to be determined through phenomenological constituent equations relating these fields to the electric field and the magnetic field , together with the bound charge and current.
See below for a detailed description of the differences between the microscopic equations, dealing with "total" charge and current including material contributions, useful in air/vacuum;
and the macroscopic equations, dealing with "free" charge and current, practical to use within materials.
When an electric field is applied to a dielectric material its molecules respond by forming microscopic electric dipoles – their atomic nuclei move a tiny distance in the direction of the field, while their electrons move a tiny distance in the opposite direction. This produces a "macroscopic" "bound charge" in the material even though all of the charges involved are bound to individual molecules. For example, if every molecule responds the same, similar to that shown in the figure, these tiny movements of charge combine to produce a layer of positive bound charge on one side of the material and a layer of negative charge on the other side. The bound charge is most conveniently described in terms of the polarization of the material, its dipole moment per unit volume. If is uniform, a macroscopic separation of charge is produced only at the surfaces where enters and leaves the material. For non-uniform , a charge is also produced in the bulk.
Somewhat similarly, in all materials the constituent atoms exhibit magnetic moments that are intrinsically linked to the angular momentum of the components of the atoms, most notably their electrons. The connection to angular momentum suggests the picture of an assembly of microscopic current loops. Outside the material, an assembly of such microscopic current loops is not different from a macroscopic current circulating around the material's surface, despite the fact that no individual charge is traveling a large distance. These "bound currents" can be described using the magnetization .
The very complicated and granular bound charges and bound currents, therefore, can be represented on the macroscopic scale in terms of and , which average these charges and currents on a sufficiently large scale so as not to see the granularity of individual atoms, but also sufficiently small that they vary with location in the material. As such, "Maxwell's macroscopic equations" ignore many details on a fine scale that can be unimportant to understanding matters on a gross scale by calculating fields that are averaged over some suitable volume.
The "definitions" (not constitutive relations) of the auxiliary fields are:
where is the polarization field and is the magnetization field, which are defined in terms of microscopic bound charges and bound currents respectively. The macroscopic bound charge density and bound current density in terms of polarization and magnetization are then defined as
If we define the total, bound, and free charge and current density by
and use the defining relations above to eliminate , and , the "macroscopic" Maxwell's equations reproduce the "microscopic" equations.
In order to apply 'Maxwell's macroscopic equations', it is necessary to specify the relations between displacement field and the electric field , as well as the magnetizing field and the magnetic field . Equivalently, we have to specify the dependence of the polarization (hence the bound charge) and the magnetization (hence the bound current) on the applied electric and magnetic field. The equations specifying this response are called constitutive relations. For real-world materials, the constitutive relations are rarely simple, except approximately, and usually determined by experiment. See the main article on constitutive relations for a fuller description.
For materials without polarization and magnetization, the constitutive relations are (by definition)
where is the permittivity of free space and the permeability of free space. Since there is no bound charge, the total and the free charge and current are equal.
An alternative viewpoint on the microscopic equations is that they are the macroscopic equations "together" with the statement that vacuum behaves like a perfect linear "material" without additional polarization and magnetization.
More generally, for linear materials the constitutive relations are
where is the permittivity and the permeability of the material. For the displacement field the linear approximation is usually excellent because for all but the most extreme electric fields or temperatures obtainable in the laboratory (high power pulsed lasers) the interatomic electric fields of materials of the order of 1011 V/m are much higher than the external field. For the magnetizing field formula_32, however, the linear approximation can break down in common materials like iron leading to phenomena like hysteresis. Even the linear case can have various complications, however.
Even more generally, in the case of non-linear materials (see for example nonlinear optics), and are not necessarily proportional to , similarly or is not necessarily proportional to . In general and depend on both and , on location and time, and possibly other physical quantities.
In applications one also has to describe how the free currents and charge density behave in terms of and possibly coupled to other physical quantities like pressure, and the mass, number density, and velocity of charge-carrying particles. E.g., the original equations given by Maxwell (see History of Maxwell's equations) included Ohm's law in the form
Following is a summary of some of the numerous other mathematical formalisms to write the microscopic Maxwell's equations, with the columns separating the two homogeneous Maxwell equations from the two inhomogeneous ones involving charge and current. Each formulation has versions directly in terms of the electric and magnetic fields, and indirectly in terms of the electrical potential and the vector potential . Potentials were introduced as a convenient way to solve the homogeneous equations, but it was thought that all observable physics was contained in the electric and magnetic fields (or relativistically, the Faraday tensor). The potentials play a central role in quantum mechanics, however, and act quantum mechanically with observable consequences even when the electric and magnetic fields vanish (Aharonov–Bohm effect).
Each table describes one formalism. See the main article for details of each formulation. SI units are used throughout.
The Maxwell equations can also be formulated on a spacetime-like Minkowski space where space and time are treated on equal footing. The direct spacetime formulations make manifest that the Maxwell equations are relativistically invariant. Because of this symmetry electric and magnetic field are treated on equal footing and are recognised as components of the Faraday tensor. This reduces the four Maxwell equations to two, which simplifies the equations, although we can no longer use the familiar vector formulation. In fact the Maxwell equations in the space + time formulation are not Galileo invariant and have Lorentz invariance as a hidden symmetry. This was a major source of inspiration for the development of relativity theory. Indeed, even the formulation that treats space and time separately is not a non-relativistic approximation and describes the same physics by simply renaming variables. For this reason the relativistic invariant equations are usually called the Maxwell equations as well.
Each table describes one formalism.
Other formalisms include the geometric algebra formulation and a matrix representation of Maxwell's equations. Historically, a quaternionic formulation was used.
Maxwell's equations are partial differential equations that relate the electric and magnetic fields to each other and to the electric charges and currents. Often, the charges and currents are themselves dependent on the electric and magnetic fields via the Lorentz force equation and the constitutive relations. These all form a set of coupled partial differential equations which are often very difficult to solve: the solutions encompass all the diverse phenomena of classical electromagnetism. Some general remarks follow.
As for any differential equation, boundary conditions and initial conditions are necessary for a unique solution. For example, even with no charges and no currents anywhere in spacetime, there are the obvious solutions for which E and B are zero or constant, but there are also non-trivial solutions corresponding to electromagnetic waves. In some cases, Maxwell's equations are solved over the whole of space, and boundary conditions are given as asymptotic limits at infinity. In other cases, Maxwell's equations are solved in a finite region of space, with appropriate conditions on the boundary of that region, for example an artificial absorbing boundary representing the rest of the universe, or periodic boundary conditions, or walls that isolate a small region from the outside world (as with a waveguide or cavity resonator).
Jefimenko's equations (or the closely related Liénard–Wiechert potentials) are the explicit solution to Maxwell's equations for the electric and magnetic fields created by any given distribution of charges and currents. It assumes specific initial conditions to obtain the so-called "retarded solution", where the only fields present are the ones created by the charges. However, Jefimenko's equations are unhelpful in situations when the charges and currents are themselves affected by the fields they create.
Numerical methods for differential equations can be used to compute approximate solutions of Maxwell's equations when exact solutions are impossible. These include the finite element method and finite-difference time-domain method. For more details, see Computational electromagnetics.
Maxwell's equations "seem" overdetermined, in that they involve six unknowns (the three components of and ) but eight equations (one for each of the two Gauss's laws, three vector components each for Faraday's and Ampere's laws). (The currents and charges are not unknowns, being freely specifiable subject to charge conservation.) This is related to a certain limited kind of redundancy in Maxwell's equations: It can be proven that any system satisfying Faraday's law and Ampere's law "automatically" also satisfies the two Gauss's laws, as long as the system's initial condition does, and assuming conservation of charge and the nonexistence of magnetic monopoles.
This explanation was first introduced by Julius Adams Stratton in 1941.
Although it is possible to simply ignore the two Gauss's laws in a numerical algorithm (apart from the initial conditions), the imperfect precision of the calculations can lead to ever-increasing violations of those laws. By introducing dummy variables characterizing these violations, the four equations become not overdetermined after all. The resulting formulation can lead to more accurate algorithms that take all four laws into account.
Both identities formula_37, which reduce eight equations to six independent ones, are the true reason of overdetermination.
Equivalently, the overdetermination can be viewed as implying conservation of electric and magnetic charge, as they are required in the derivation described above but implied by the two Gauss's laws.
For linear algebraic equations, one can make 'nice' rules to rewrite the equations and unknowns. The equations can be linearly dependent. But in differential equations, and especially PDEs, one needs appropriate boundary conditions, which depend in not so obvious ways on the equations. Even more, if one rewrites them in terms of vector and scalar potential, then the equations are underdetermined because of Gauge fixing.
Maxwell's equations and the Lorentz force law (along with the rest of classical electromagnetism) are extraordinarily successful at explaining and predicting a variety of phenomena; however they are not exact, but a classical limit of quantum electrodynamics (QED).
Some observed electromagnetic phenomena are incompatible with Maxwell's equations. These include photon–photon scattering and many other phenomena related to photons or virtual photons, "nonclassical light" and quantum entanglement of electromagnetic fields (see quantum optics). E.g. quantum cryptography cannot be described by Maxwell theory, not even approximately. The approximate nature of Maxwell's equations becomes more and more apparent when going into the extremely strong field regime (see Euler–Heisenberg Lagrangian) or to extremely small distances.
Finally, Maxwell's equations cannot explain any phenomenon involving individual photons interacting with quantum matter, such as the photoelectric effect, Planck's law, the Duane–Hunt law, and single-photon light detectors. However, many such phenomena may be approximated using a halfway theory of quantum matter coupled to a classical electromagnetic field, either as external field or with the expected value of the charge current and density on the right hand side of Maxwell's equations.
Popular variations on the Maxwell equations as a classical theory of electromagnetic fields are relatively scarce because the standard equations have stood the test of time remarkably well.
Maxwell's equations posit that there is electric charge, but no magnetic charge (also called magnetic monopoles), in the universe. Indeed, magnetic charge has never been observed, despite extensive searches, and may not exist. If they did exist, both Gauss's law for magnetism and Faraday's law would need to be modified, and the resulting four equations would be fully symmetric under the interchange of electric and magnetic fields.
The developments before relativity:
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19737
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Metrizable space
In topology and related areas of mathematics, a metrizable space is a topological space that is homeomorphic to a metric space. That is, a topological space formula_1 is said to be metrizable if there is a metric
such that the topology induced by "d" is formula_3. Metrization theorems are theorems that give sufficient conditions for a topological space to be metrizable.
Metrizable spaces inherit all topological properties from metric spaces. For example, they are Hausdorff paracompact spaces (and hence normal and Tychonoff) and first-countable. However, some properties of the metric, such as completeness, cannot be said to be inherited. This is also true of other structures linked to the metric. A metrizable uniform space, for example, may have a different set of contraction maps than a metric space to which it is homeomorphic.
One of the first widely recognized metrization theorems was . This states that every Hausdorff second-countable regular space is metrizable. So, for example, every second-countable manifold is metrizable. (Historical note: The form of the theorem shown here was in fact proved by Tychonoff in 1926. What Urysohn had shown, in a paper published posthumously in 1925, was that every second-countable "normal" Hausdorff space is metrizable). The converse does not hold: there exist metric spaces that are not second countable, for example, an uncountable set endowed with the discrete metric. The Nagata–Smirnov metrization theorem, described below, provides a more specific theorem where the converse does hold.
Several other metrization theorems follow as simple corollaries to Urysohn's theorem. For example, a compact Hausdorff space is metrizable if and only if it is second-countable.
Urysohn's Theorem can be restated as: A topological space is separable and metrizable if and only if it is regular, Hausdorff and second-countable. The Nagata–Smirnov metrization theorem extends this to the non-separable case. It states that a topological space is metrizable if and only if it is regular, Hausdorff and has a σ-locally finite base. A σ-locally finite base is a base which is a union of countably many locally finite collections of open sets. For a closely related theorem see the Bing metrization theorem.
Separable metrizable spaces can also be characterized as those spaces which are homeomorphic to a subspace of the Hilbert cube formula_4, i.e. the countably infinite product of the unit interval (with its natural subspace topology from the reals) with itself, endowed with the product topology.
A space is said to be locally metrizable if every point has a metrizable neighbourhood. Smirnov proved that a locally metrizable space is metrizable if and only if it is Hausdorff and paracompact. In particular, a manifold is metrizable if and only if it is paracompact.
The group of unitary operators formula_5 on a separable Hilbert space formula_6 endowed
with the strong operator topology is metrizable (see Proposition II.1 in ).
Non-normal spaces cannot be metrizable; important examples include
The real line with the lower limit topology is not metrizable. The usual distance function is not a metric on this space because the topology it determines is the usual topology, not the lower limit topology. This space is Hausdorff, paracompact and first countable.
The long line is locally metrizable but not metrizable; in a sense it is "too long".
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Max August Zorn
Max August Zorn (; June 6, 1906 – March 9, 1993) was a German mathematician. He was an algebraist, group theorist, and numerical analyst. He is best known for Zorn's lemma, a method used in set theory that is applicable to a wide range of mathematical constructs such as vector spaces, ordered sets and the like. Zorn's lemma was first postulated by Kazimierz Kuratowski in 1922, and then independently by Zorn in 1935.
Zorn was born in Krefeld, Germany. He attended the University of Hamburg. He received his Ph.D. in April 1930 for a thesis on alternative algebras. He published his findings in "Abhandlungen aus dem Mathematischen Seminar der Universität Hamburg". Zorn showed that split-octonions could be represented by a mixed-style of matrices called Zorn's vector-matrix algebra.
Max Zorn was appointed as an assistant at the University of Halle. However, he did not have the opportunity to work there for long since he was forced to leave Germany in 1933 because of the Nazi policies. According to grandson Eric, "[Max] spoke with a raspy, airy voice most of his life. Few people knew why, because he only told the story after significant prodding, but he talked that way because pro-Hitler thugs who objected to his politics, had battered his throat in a 1933 street fight."
Zorn emigrated to the U.S. and was appointed a Sterling Fellow at Yale University. While at Yale, Zorn wrote his paper "A Remark on Method in Transfinite Algebra" that stated his Maximum Principle, later called Zorn's lemma. It requires a set that contains the union of any chain of subsets to have one chain not contained in any other, called the maximal element. He illustrated the principle with applications in ring theory and field extensions. Zorn's lemma is an alternative expression of the axiom of choice, and thus a subject of interest in axiomatic set theory.
In 1936 he moved to UCLA and remained until 1946. While at UCLA Zorn revisited his study of alternative rings and proved the existence of the nilradical of certain alternative rings. According to Angus E. Taylor, Max was his most stimulating colleague at UCLA.
In 1946 Zorn became a professor at Indiana University where he taught until retiring in 1971. He was thesis advisor for Israel Nathan Herstein.
Zorn died in Bloomington, Indiana, United States, in March 1993, of congestive heart failure, according to his obituary in "The New York Times".
Max Zorn married Alice Schlottau and they had one son, Jens, and one daughter, Liz. Jens (born June 19, 1931) is an emeritus professor of physics at the University of Michigan and an accomplished sculptor. Max Zorn's grandson Eric Zorn is a columnist for the "Chicago Tribune".
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Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (; 64/62 BC – 12 BC) was a Roman consul, statesman, general and architect. He was a close friend, son-in-law, and lieutenant to Augustus and was responsible for the construction of some of the most notable buildings in the history of Rome and for important military victories, most notably at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC against the forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. As a result of these victories, Octavianus became the first Roman Emperor, adopting the name of Augustus. Agrippa assisted Augustus in making Rome "a city of marble" and renovating aqueducts to give all Romans, from every social class, access to the highest quality public services. He was responsible for the creation of many baths, porticoes and gardens, as well as the original Pantheon. Agrippa was also husband to Julia the Elder (who later married the second Emperor Tiberius), maternal grandfather to Caligula, and maternal great-grandfather to the Emperor Nero.
Agrippa was born between 64–62 BC, in an uncertain location. His father was called Lucius Vipsanius. He had an elder brother whose name was also Lucius Vipsanius, and a sister named Vipsania Polla. His family originated in the Italian countryside, and was of humble and plebeian origins. They had not been prominent in Roman public life. According to some scholars, including Victor Gardthausen, R. E. A. Palmer and David Ridgway, Agrippa's family was originally from Pisa in Etruria.
Agrippa was about the same age as Octavian (the future emperor Augustus), and the two were educated together and became close friends. Despite Agrippa's association with the family of Julius Caesar, his elder brother chose another side in the civil wars of the 40s BC, fighting under Cato against Caesar in Africa. When Cato's forces were defeated, Agrippa's brother was taken prisoner but freed after Octavian interceded on his behalf.
It is not known whether Agrippa fought against his brother in Africa, but he probably served in Caesar's campaign of 46–45 BC against Gnaeus Pompeius, which culminated in the Battle of Munda. Caesar regarded him highly enough to send him with Octavius in 45 BC to study in Apollonia (on the Illyrian coast) with the Macedonian legions, while Caesar consolidated his power in Rome. In the fourth month of their stay in Apollonia the news of Julius Caesar's assassination in March 44 BC reached them. Agrippa and another friend, Quintus Salvidienus Rufus, advised Octavius to march on Rome with the troops from Macedonia, but Octavius decided to sail to Italy with a small retinue. After his arrival, he learned that Caesar had adopted him as his legal heir. Octavius at this time took Caesar's name, but modern historians refer to him as "Octavian" during this period.
After Octavian's return to Rome, he and his supporters realised they needed the support of legions. Agrippa helped Octavian to levy troops in Campania. Once Octavian had his legions, he made a pact with Mark Antony and Lepidus, legally established in 43 BC as the Second Triumvirate. Octavian and his consular colleague Quintus Pedius arranged for Caesar's assassins to be prosecuted in their absence, and Agrippa was entrusted with the case against Gaius Cassius Longinus. It may have been in the same year that Agrippa began his political career, holding the position of Tribune of the Plebs, which granted him entry to the Senate.
In 42 BC, Agrippa probably fought alongside Octavian and Antony in the Battle of Philippi. After their return to Rome, he played a major role in Octavian's war against Lucius Antonius and Fulvia, respectively the brother and wife of Mark Antony, which began in 41 BC and ended in the capture of Perusia in 40 BC. However, Salvidienus remained Octavian's main general at this time. After the Perusine war, Octavian departed for Gaul, leaving Agrippa as urban praetor in Rome with instructions to defend Italy against Sextus Pompeius, an opponent of the Triumvirate who was now occupying Sicily. In July 40, while Agrippa was occupied with the Ludi Apollinares that were the praetor's responsibility, Sextus began a raid in southern Italy. Agrippa advanced on him, forcing him to withdraw. However, the Triumvirate proved unstable, and in August 40 both Sextus and Antony invaded Italy (but not in an organized alliance). Agrippa's success in retaking Sipontum from Antony helped bring an end to the conflict. Agrippa was among the intermediaries through whom Antony and Octavian agreed once more upon peace. During the discussions Octavian learned that Salvidienus had offered to betray him to Antony, with the result that Salvidienus was prosecuted and either executed or committed suicide. Agrippa was now Octavian's leading general.
In 39 or 38 BC, Octavian appointed Agrippa governor of Transalpine Gaul, where in 38 BC he put down a rising of the Aquitanians. He also fought the Germanic tribes, becoming the next Roman general to cross the Rhine after Julius Caesar. He was summoned back to Rome by Octavian to assume the consulship for 37 BC. He was well below the usual minimum age of 43, but Octavian had suffered a humiliating naval defeat against Sextus Pompey and needed his friend to oversee the preparations for further warfare. Agrippa refused the offer of a triumph for his exploits in Gaul – on the grounds, says Dio, that he thought it improper to celebrate during a time of trouble for Octavian. Since Sextus Pompeius had command of the sea on the coasts of Italy, Agrippa's first care was to provide a safe harbour for Octavian's ships. He accomplished this by cutting through the strips of land which separated the Lacus Lucrinus from the sea, thus forming an outer harbour, while joining the lake Avernus to the Lucrinus to serve as an inner harbor. The new harbor-complex was named Portus Julius in Octavian's honour. Agrippa was also responsible for technological improvements, including larger ships and an improved form of grappling hook. About this time, he married Caecilia Pomponia Attica, daughter of Cicero's friend Titus Pomponius Atticus.
In 36 BC, Octavian and Agrippa set sail against Sextus. The fleet was badly damaged by storms and had to withdraw; Agrippa was left in charge of the second attempt. Thanks to superior technology and training, Agrippa and his men won decisive victories at Mylae and Naulochus, destroying all but seventeen of Sextus' ships and compelling most of his forces to surrender. Octavian, with his power increased, forced the triumvir Lepidus into retirement and entered Rome in triumph. Agrippa received the unprecedented honour of a naval crown decorated with the beaks of ships; as Dio remarks, this was "a decoration given to nobody before or since".
Agrippa participated in smaller military campaigns in 35 and 34 BC, but by the autumn of 34 he had returned to Rome. He rapidly set out on a campaign of public repairs and improvements, including renovation of the aqueduct known as the Aqua Marcia and an extension of its pipes to cover more of the city. He became the first water commissioner of Rome in 33 BC. Through his actions after being elected in 33 BC as one of the aediles (officials responsible for Rome's buildings and festivals), the streets were repaired and the sewers were cleaned out, while lavish public spectacles were put on. Agrippa signalled his tenure of office by effecting great improvements in the city of Rome, restoring and building aqueducts, enlarging and cleansing the Cloaca Maxima, constructing baths and porticos, and laying out gardens. He also gave a stimulus to the public exhibition of works of art. It was unusual for an ex-consul to hold the lower-ranking position of aedile, but Agrippa's success bore out this break with tradition. As emperor, Augustus would later boast that "he had found the city of brick but left it of marble", thanks in part to the great services provided by Agrippa under his reign.
Agrippa was again called away to take command of the fleet when the war with Antony and Cleopatra broke out. He captured the strategically important city of Methone at the southwest of the Peloponnese, then sailed north, raiding the Greek coast and capturing Corcyra (modern Corfu). Octavian then brought his forces to Corcyra, occupying it as a naval base. Antony drew up his ships and troops at Actium, where Octavian moved to meet him. Agrippa meanwhile defeated Antony's supporter Quintus Nasidius in a naval battle at Patrae. Dio relates that as Agrippa moved to join Octavian near Actium, he encountered Gaius Sosius, one of Antony's lieutenants, who was making a surprise attack on the squadron of Lucius Tarius, a supporter of Octavian. Agrippa's unexpected arrival turned the battle around.
As the decisive battle approached, according to Dio, Octavian received intelligence that Antony and Cleopatra planned to break past his naval blockade and escape. At first he wished to allow the flagships past, arguing that he could overtake them with his lighter vessels and that the other opposing ships would surrender when they saw their leaders' cowardice. Agrippa objected, saying that Antony's ships, although larger, could outrun Octavian's if they hoisted sails, and that Octavian ought to fight now because Antony's fleet had just been struck by storms. Octavian followed his friend's advice.
On September 2, 31 BC, the Battle of Actium was fought. Octavian's victory, which gave him the mastery of Rome and the empire, was mainly due to Agrippa. Octavian then bestowed upon him the hand of his niece Claudia Marcella Major in 28 BC. He also served a second consulship with Octavian the same year. In 27 BC, Agrippa held a third consulship with Octavian, and in that year, the senate also bestowed upon Octavian the imperial title of Augustus.
In commemoration of the Battle of Actium, Agrippa built and dedicated the building that served as the Roman Pantheon before its destruction in AD 80. Emperor Hadrian used Agrippa's design to build his own Pantheon, which survives in Rome. The inscription of the later building, which was built around 125, preserves the text of the inscription from Agrippa's building during his third consulship. The years following his third consulship, Agrippa spent in Gaul, reforming the provincial administration and taxation system, along with building an effective road system and aqueducts.
Agrippa's friendship with Augustus seems to have been clouded by the jealousy of Augustus' nephew and son-in-law Marcus Claudius Marcellus, which was probably instigated by the intrigues of Livia, the third wife of Augustus, who feared Agrippa's influence over her husband. Traditionally it is said the result of such jealousy was that Agrippa left Rome, ostensibly to take over the governorship of eastern provinces – a sort of honourable exile, but he only sent his legate to Syria, while he himself remained at Lesbos and governed by proxy, though he may have been on a secret mission to negotiate with the Parthians about the return of the Roman legions' standards which they held. On the death of Marcellus, which took place within a year of his exile, he was recalled to Rome by Augustus, who found he could not dispense with his services. However, if one places the events in the context of the crisis of 23 BC it seems unlikely that, when facing significant opposition and about to make a major political climb down, the emperor Augustus would place a man in exile in charge of the largest body of Roman troops. What is far more likely is that Agrippa's 'exile' was actually the careful political positioning of a loyal lieutenant in command of a significant army as a backup plan in case the settlement plans of 23 BC failed and Augustus needed military support. Moreover, after 23 BC as part of what became known as Augustus' "Second Constitutional Settlement", Agrippa's constitutional powers were greatly increased to provide the Principate of Augustus with greater constitutional stability by providing for a political heir or replacement for Augustus if he were to succumb to his habitual ill health or was assassinated. In the course of the year, proconsular imperium, similar to Augustus' power, was conferred upon Agrippa for five years. The exact nature of the grant is uncertain but it probably covered Augustus' imperial provinces, east and west, perhaps lacking authority over the provinces of the Senate. That was to come later, as was the jealously guarded tribunicia potestas, or powers of a tribune of the plebeians. These great powers of state are not usually heaped upon a former exile.
It is said that Maecenas advised Augustus to attach Agrippa still more closely to him by making him his son-in-law. Accordingly, by 21 BC, he induced Agrippa to divorce Marcella and marry his daughter, Julia the Elder—the widow of Marcellus, equally celebrated for her beauty, abilities, and her shameless extravagance. In 19 BC, Agrippa was employed in putting down a rising of the Cantabrians in Hispania (Cantabrian Wars).
In 18 BC, Agrippa's powers were even further increased to almost match those of Augustus. That year his proconsular imperium was augmented to cover the provinces of the Senate. More than that, he was finally granted tribunicia potestas, or powers of a tribune of the plebeians. As was the case with Augustus, Agrippa’s grant of tribunician powers was conferred without his having to actually hold that office. These powers were considerable, giving him veto power over the acts of the Senate or other magistracies, including those of other tribunes, and the power to present laws for approval by the People. Just as important, a tribune’s person was sacred, meaning that any person who harmfully touched them or impeded their actions, including political acts, could lawfully be killed. After the grant of these powers Agrippa was, on paper, almost as powerful as Augustus was. However, there was no doubt that Augustus was the man in charge.
Agrippa was appointed governor of the eastern provinces a second time in 17 BC, where his just and prudent administration won him the respect and good-will of the provincials, especially from the Jewish population. Agrippa also restored effective Roman control over the Cimmerian Chersonnese (Crimean Peninsula) during his governorship.
Agrippa’s last public service was his beginning of the conquest of the upper Danube River region, which would become the Roman province of Pannonia in 13 BC. He died at Campania in 12 BC at the age of 51. His posthumous son, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa Postumus, was named in his honor. Augustus honoured his memory by a magnificent funeral and spent over a month in mourning. Augustus personally oversaw all of Agrippa's children’s educations. Although Agrippa had built a tomb for himself, Augustus had Agrippa's remains placed in Augustus' own mausoleum.
Agrippa was also known as a writer, especially on the subject of geography. Under his supervision, Julius Caesar's dream of having a complete survey of the Empire made was carried out. Agrippa constructed a circular chart, which was later engraved on marble by Augustus, and afterwards placed in the colonnade built by his sister Polla. Amongst his writings, an autobiography, now lost, is referenced.
Agrippa established a standard for Roman foot (Agrippa's own) in 29 BC, and thus a definition of a pace as 5 feet. An imperial Roman mile denotes 5,000 Roman feet.
The term Via Agrippa is used for any part of the network of roadways in Gaul built by Agrippa. Some of these still exist as paths or even as highways.
Agrippa had several children through his three marriages:
Through his numerous children, Agrippa would become ancestor to many subsequent members of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, whose position he helped to attain, as well as many other distinguished Romans.
There have been some attempts to assign further descendants to a number of the aforementioned figures, including two lines of Asinii descended from Gaius Asinius Pollio and Marcus Asinius Agrippa respectively. A daughter (and further descendants) named Rubellia Bassa to Julia, who may have been a daughter of Gaius Rubellius Blandus by an earlier marriage. And, finally, a series of descendants from Junia Lepida and her husband, Gaius Cassius Longinus. However, all of these lines of descent are extremely hypothetical and lack any evidence to support a connection to the descendants of Agrippa.
Agrippa is a character in William Shakespeare's play "Antony and Cleopatra".
A fictional version of Agrippa in his later life played a prominent role in the 1976 BBC Television series "I, Claudius". Agrippa was portrayed as a much older man, though he would have only been 39 years old at the time of the first episode (24/23 BC). He was played by John Paul.
Agrippa is the main character in Paul Naschy's 1980 film "Los cántabros", played by Naschy himself. It is a highly fictionalized version of the Cantabrian Wars in which Agrippa is depicted as the lover of the sister of Cantabrian leader Corocotta.
Agrippa appears in several film versions of the life of Cleopatra. He is normally portrayed as an old man rather than a young one. Among the people to portray him are Philip Locke, Alan Rowe and Andrew Keir.
Agrippa is also one of the principal characters in the British/Italian joint project "" (2003) featuring flashbacks between Augustus and Julia about Agrippa, which shows him in his youth on serving in Caesar's army up until his victory at Actium and the defeat of Cleopatra. He is portrayed by Ken Duken. In the 2005 series "Empire" the young Agrippa (played by Christopher Egan) becomes Octavian's sidekick after saving him from an attempted poisoning.
Marcus Agrippa, a highly fictional character based on Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa's early life, is part of the BBC-HBO-RAI television series "Rome". He is played by Allen Leech. He describes himself as the grandson of a slave. The series creates a romantic relationship between Agrippa and Octavian's sister Octavia Minor, for which there is no historical evidence.
Agrippa is mentioned by name in book VIII of Virgil's "The Aeneid", where Aeneas sees an image of Agrippa leading ships in the Battle of Actium on the shield forged for him by Vulcan and given to him by his mother, Venus.
Agrippa is a main character in the early part of Robert Graves' novel "I, Claudius". He is a main character in the later two novels of Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series. He is a featured character of prominence and importance in the historical fiction novel "Cleopatra's Daughter" by Michelle Moran. He also features prominently in John Edward Williams' historical novel "Augustus". In the backstory of "Gunpowder Empire", the first volume in Harry Turtledove's Crosstime Traffic alternate history series, Agrippa lived until AD 26, conquering all of Germania for the Empire and becoming the second Emperor when Augustus died in AD 14.
A heavily fictionalized version of Agrippa is one of the playable characters (the other being an equally fictionalized Augustus) in the video game "Shadow of Rome". There, Agrippa is sentenced to become a gladiator after his father was wrongly sentenced for assassinating Julius Caesar. Agrippa's goal is to stay alive as a gladiator for as long as possible, while Augustus acts as an infiltrator who slowly exposes the conspiracy against Caesar. Eventually, Augustus is able to prove Vipsanius' innocence and both of them are pardoned. Then a civil war breaks out, because the direct successor was outraged by exposure of the conspiracy. Agrippa and Augustus fight against Antonius. Agrippa appears as a Great Admiral in the computer game "Sid Meier's Civilization V". A fictionalized version of Agrippa also appears in the video game "Assassin's Creed Origins" as the commander of the Roman Citadel in the province of Kyrenaika where the player character has to kill him and retrieve a document from his body.
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Beijing cuisine
Beijing cuisine, also known as Jing cuisine, Mandarin cuisine and Peking cuisine, and formerly as Beiping cuisine, is the local cuisine of Beijing, the national capital of China.
As Beijing has been the capital of China for centuries, its cuisine is influenced by culinary traditions from all over China, but the style that has the greatest influence on Beijing cuisine is that of the eastern coastal province of Shandong. Beijing cuisine has itself, in turn, also greatly influenced other Chinese cuisines, particularly the cuisine of Liaoning, the Chinese imperial cuisine, and the Chinese aristocrat cuisine.
Another tradition that influenced Beijing cuisine (as well as influenced by the latter itself) is the Chinese imperial cuisine that originated from the "Emperor's Kitchen" (), which referred to the cooking facilities inside the Forbidden City, where thousands of cooks from different parts of China showed their best culinary skills to please the imperial family and officials. Therefore, it is sometimes difficult to determine the actual origin of a dish as the term "Mandarin" is generalised and refers not only to Beijing, but other provinces as well. However, some generalisation of Beijing cuisine can be characterised as follows: Foods that originated in Beijing are often snacks rather than main courses, and they are typically sold by small shops or street vendors. There is emphasis on dark soy paste, sesame paste, sesame oil and scallions, and fermented tofu is often served as a condiment. In terms of cooking techniques, methods relating to different ways of frying are often used. There is less emphasis on rice as an accompaniment as compared to many other regions in China, as local rice production in Beijing is limited by the relatively dry climate.
Many dishes in Beijing cuisine that are served as main courses are derived from a variety of Chinese Halal foods, particularly lamb and beef dishes, as well as from Huaiyang cuisine.
Huaiyang cuisine has been praised since ancient times in China, and it was a general practice for an official travelling to Beijing to take up a new post to bring along with him a chef specialising in Huaiyang cuisine. When these officials had completed their terms in the capital and returned to their native provinces, most of the chefs they brought along often remained in Beijing. They opened their own restaurants or were hired by wealthy locals. The imperial clan of the Ming dynasty, the House of Zhu, who had ancestry from Jiangsu Province, also contributed greatly in introducing Huaiyang cuisine to Beijing when the capital was moved from Nanjing to Beijing in the 15th century, because the imperial kitchen was mainly Huaiyang style. The element of traditional Beijing culinary and gastronomical cultures of enjoying artistic performances such as Beijing opera while dining directly developed from the similar practice in the culture of Jiangsu and Huaiyang cuisines.
Chinese Islamic cuisine is another important component of Beijing cuisine, and was first prominently introduced when Beijing became the capital of the Yuan dynasty. However, the most significant contribution to the formation of Beijing cuisine came from Shandong cuisine, as most chefs from Shandong Province came to Beijing en masse during the Qing dynasty. Unlike the earlier two cuisines, which were brought by the ruling class such as nobles, aristocrats and bureaucrats, and then spread to the general populace, the introduction of Shandong cuisine begun with serving the general populace, with much wider market segment, from wealthy merchants to the working class.
The Qing dynasty was a major period in the formation of Beijing cuisine. Before the Boxer Rebellion, the foodservice establishments in Beijing were strictly stratified by the foodservice guild. Each category of the establishment was specifically based on its ability to provide for a particular segment of the market. The top ranking foodservice establishments served nobles, aristocrats, and wealthy merchants and landlords, while lower ranking foodservice establishments served the populace of lower financial and social status. It was during this period when Beijing cuisine gained fame and became recognised by the Chinese culinary society, and the stratification of the foodservice was one of its most obvious characteristics as part of its culinary and gastronomic cultures during this first peak of its formation.
The official stratification was an integral part of the local culture of Beijing and it was not finally abolished officially after the end of the Qing dynasty, which resulted in the second peak in the formation of Beijing cuisine. Meals previously offered to nobles and aristocrats were made available to anyone who could afford them instead of being restricted only to the upper class. As chefs freely switched between jobs offered by different foodservice establishments, they brought their skills that further enriched and developed Beijing cuisine. Though the stratification of food services in Beijing was no longer effected by imperial laws, the structure more or less remained despite continuous weakening due to the financial background of the local clientele. The different classes are listed in the following subsections.
Foodservice establishments with names ending with the Chinese character "zhuang" (), or "zhuang zihao" (), were the top-ranking foodservice establishments, not only in providing foods, but entertainment as well. The form of entertainment provided was usually Beijing opera, and foodservice establishments of this class always had long-term contracts with a Beijing opera troupe to perform onsite. Moreover, foodservice establishments of this class would always have long-term contracts with famous performers, such as national-treasure-class performers, to perform onsite, though not on a daily basis. Foodservice establishments of this category did not accept any different customers on a walk-in basis, but instead, only accepted customers who came as a group and ordered banquets by appointment, and the banquets provided by foodservice establishments of this category often included most, if not all tables, at the site. The bulk of the business of foodservice of this category, however, was catering at customers' homes or other locations, and such catering was often for birthdays, marriages, funerals, promotions and other important celebrations and festivals. When catering, these foodservice establishments not only provided what was on the menu, but fulfilled customers' requests.
Foodservice establishments categorised as "leng zhuangzi" () lacked any rooms to host banquets, and thus their business was purely catering.
Foodservice establishments with names ending with the Chinese character "tang" (), or "tang zihao" (), are similar to foodservice establishments with names ending with the Chinese character "zhuang", but the business of these second-class foodservice establishments were generally evenly divided among onsite banquet hosting and catering (at customers' homes). Foodservice establishments of this class would also have long-term contracts with Beijing opera troupes to perform onsite, but they did not have long-term contracts with famous performers, such as national-treasure-class performers, to perform onsite on regular basis; however these top performers would still perform at foodservice establishments of this category occasionally. In terms of catering at the customers' sites, foodservice establishments of this category often only provided dishes strictly according to their menu, and would not provide any dishes that were not on the menu.
Foodservice establishments with names ending with the Chinese character "ting" (), or "ting zihao" () are foodservice establishments which had more business in onsite banquet hosting than catering at customers' homes. For onsite banquet hosting, entertainment was still provided, but foodservice establishments of this category did not have long-term contracts with Beijing opera troupes, so that performers varied from time to time, and top performers usually did not perform here or at any lower-ranking foodservice establishments. For catering, different foodservice establishments of this category were incapable of handling significant catering on their own, but generally had to combine resources with other foodservice establishments of the same ranking (or lower) to do the job.
Foodservice establishments with names ending with the Chinese character "yuan" (), or "yuan zihao" () did nearly all their business in hosting banquets onsite. Entertainment was not provided on a regular basis, but there were stages built onsite for Beijing opera performers. Instead of being hired by the foodservice establishments like in the previous three categories, performers at foodservice establishments of this category were usually contractors who paid the foodservice establishment to perform and split the earnings according to a certain percentage. Occasionally, foodservice establishments of this category would be called upon to help cater at customers' homes, and like foodservice establishments with names ending with the Chinese character "ting", they could not do the job on their own but had to work with others, never taking the lead as foodservice establishments with names ending with the Chinese character "ting" could.
Foodservice establishments with names ending with the Chinese character "lou" (), or "lou zihao" () did the bulk of their business hosting banquets onsite by appointment. In addition, a smaller portion of the business was in serving different customers onsite on a walk-in basis. Occasionally, when catering at customers' homes, foodservice establishments of this category would only provide the few specialty dishes they were famous for.
Foodservice establishments with names ending with the Chinese character "ju" (), or "ju zihao" () generally divided their business evenly into two areas: serving different customers onsite on a walk-in basis, and hosting banquets by appointment for customers who came as one group. Occasionally, when catering at the customers' homes, foodservice establishments of this category would only provide the few specialty dishes they were famous for, just like foodservice establishments with names ending with the Chinese character "lou". However, unlike those establishments, which always cooked their specialty dishes on location, foodservice establishment of this category would either cook on location or simply bring the already-cooked food to the location.
Foodservice establishments with names ending with the Chinese character "zhai" (), or "zhai zihao" () were mainly in the business of serving different customers onsite on a walk-in basis, but a small portion of their income did come from hosting banquets by appointment for customers who came as one group. Just like foodservice establishments with names ending with the Chinese character "ju", when catering at customers’ homes, foodservice establishments of this category would also only provide the few specialty dishes they are famous for, but they would mostly bring the already-cooked dishes to the location, and would only cook on location occasionally.
Foodservice establishments with names ending with the Chinese character "fang" (), or "fang zihao" (). Foodservice establishments of this category generally did not offer the service of hosting banquets made by appointment for customers who came as one group, but instead, often only offered to serve different customers onsite on a walk-in basis. Foodservice establishments of this category or lower would not be called upon to perform catering at the customers' homes for special events.
Foodservice establishments with names ending with the Chinese character "guan" (), or "guan zihao" (). Foodservice establishments of this category mainly served different customers onsite on a walk-in basis, and in addition, a portion of the income would be earned from selling to-goes.
Foodservice establishments with names ending with the Chinese character "dian" (), or "dian zihao" (). Foodservice establishments of this category had their own place, like all previous categories, but serving different customers to dine onsite on a walk-in basis only provided half of the overall income, while the other half came from selling to-goes.
Foodservice establishments with name ending with the Chinese character "pu" (), or "pu zihao" (). Foodservice establishments of this category ranked next to the last, and they were often named after the owners' last names. Foodservice establishments of this category had fixed spots of business for having their own places, but not as large as those belonging to the category of "dian", and thus did not have tables, but only seats for customers. As a result, the bulk of the income of foodservice establishments of this category was from selling to-goes, while income earned from customers dining onsite only provided a small portion of the overall income.
Foodservice establishments with names ending with the Chinese character "tan" (), or "tan zihao" (). The lowest ranking foodservice establishments without any tables, and selling to-goes was the only form of business. In addition to name the food stand after the owners' last name or the food sold, these food stands were also often named after the owners' nicknames.
Numerous traditional restaurants in Beijing are credited with great contributions in the formation of Beijing cuisine, but many of them have gone out of business. However, some of them managed to survive until today, and some of them are:
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19758
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Manichaeism
Manichæism (;
in New Persian "Ãyīnⁱ Mānī"; ) was a major religion founded in the 3rd century AD by the Persian prophet Mani (Middle Persian "Mānī", New Persian: "Mānī", Syriac "Mānī", Greek , ) in the Sasanian Empire.
Manichaeism taught an elaborate dualistic cosmology describing the struggle between a good, spiritual world of light, and an evil, material world of darkness. Through an ongoing process that takes place in human history, light is gradually removed from the world of matter and returned to the world of light, whence it came. Its beliefs were based on local Mesopotamian religious movements and Gnosticism. It revered Mani as the final prophet after Zoroaster, Gautama Buddha, and Jesus.
Manichaeism was quickly successful and spread far through the Aramaic-speaking regions. It thrived between the third and seventh centuries, and at its height was one of the most widespread religions in the world. Manichaean churches and scriptures existed as far east as China and as far west as the Roman Empire. It was briefly the main rival to Christianity before the spread of Islam in the competition to replace classical paganism. Manichaeism survived longer in the east than in the west, and it appears to have finally faded away after the 14th century in south China, contemporary to the decline of the Church of the East in Ming China. While most of Manichaeism's original writings have been lost, numerous translations and fragmentary texts have survived.
An adherent of Manichaeism was called a "Manichaean" or "Manichean", or "Manichee", especially in older sources.
Mani was an Iranian born in 216 in or near Seleucia-Ctesiphon (now al-Mada'in) in the Parthian Empire. According to the "Cologne Mani-Codex", Mani's parents were members of the Jewish Christian Gnostic sect known as the Elcesaites.
Mani composed seven works, six of which were written in the Syriac language, a late variety of Aramaic. The seventh, the "Shabuhragan", was written by Mani in Middle Persian and presented by him to the Sasanian emperor, Shapur I. Although there is no proof Shapur I was a Manichaean, he tolerated the spread of Manichaeism and refrained from persecuting it within his empire's boundaries.
According to one tradition, it was Mani himself who invented the unique version of the Syriac script known as the Manichaean alphabet, which was used in all of the Manichaean works written within the Sasanian Empire, whether they were in Syriac or Middle Persian, and also for most of the works written within the Uyghur Khaganate. The primary language of Babylon (and the administrative and cultural language of the Sassanid Empire) at that time was Eastern Middle Aramaic, which included three main dialects: Jewish Babylonian Aramaic (the language of the Babylonian Talmud), Mandaean (the language of Mandaeism), and Syriac, which was the language of Mani, as well as of the Syriac Christians.
While Manichaeism was spreading, existing religions such as Zoroastrianism were still popular and Christianity was gaining social and political influence. Although having fewer adherents, Manichaeism won the support of many high-ranking political figures. With the assistance of the Sasanian Empire, Mani began missionary expeditions. After failing to win the favour of the next generation of Persian royalty, and incurring the disapproval of the Zoroastrian clergy, Mani is reported to have died in prison awaiting execution by the Persian Emperor Bahram I. The date of his death is estimated at 276–277.
Mani believed that the teachings of Gautama Buddha, Zoroaster, and Jesus were incomplete, and that his revelations were for the entire world, calling his teachings the "Religion of Light". Manichaean writings indicate that Mani received revelations when he was 12 and again when he was 24, and over this time period he grew dissatisfied with the Elcesaite sect he was born into. Mani began preaching at an early age and was possibly influenced by contemporary Babylonian-Aramaic movements such as Mandaeism, and Aramaic translations of Jewish apocalyptic writings similar to those found at Qumran (such as the book of Enoch literature), and by the Syriac dualist-gnostic writer Bardaisan (who lived a generation before Mani). With the discovery of the Mani-Codex, it also became clear that he was raised in a Jewish-Christian baptism sect, the Elcesaites, and was influenced by their writings, as well. According to biographies preserved by Ibn al-Nadim and the Persian polymath al-Biruni, he received a revelation as a youth from a spirit, whom he would later call his Twin ( , from which is also derived the name of the Thomas the Apostle, the "twin"), his "Syzygos" ( "spouse, partner", in the "Cologne Mani-Codex"), his Double, his Protective Angel or Divine Self. It taught him truths that he developed into a religion. His divine Twin or true Self brought Mani to self-realization. He claimed to be the "Paraclete of the Truth", as promised by Jesus in the New Testament.
Manichaeism's views on Jesus are described by historians:
Augustine also noted that Mani declared himself to be an "apostle of Jesus Christ". Manichaean tradition is also noted to have claimed that Mani was the reincarnation of different religious figures such as Buddha, Krishna, Zoroaster, and Jesus.
Academics also note that since much of what is known about Manichaeism comes from later 10th- and 11th-century Muslim historians like Al-Biruni and especially ibn al-Nadim (and his "Fihrist"), "Islamic authors ascribed to Mani the claim to be the Seal of the Prophets." In reality, for Mani the expression "seal of prophecy" refers to his disciples, who testify for the veracity of his message, as a seal does.
Another source of Mani's scriptures was original Aramaic writings relating to the "Book of Enoch" literature (see the Book of Enoch and the Second Book of Enoch), as well as an otherwise unknown section of the Book of Enoch called "The Book of Giants". This book was quoted directly, and expanded on by Mani, becoming one of the original six Syriac writings of the Manichaean Church. Besides brief references by non-Manichaean authors through the centuries, no original sources of "The Book of Giants" (which is actually part six of the Book of Enoch) were available until the 20th century.
Scattered fragments of both the original Aramaic "Book of Giants" (which were analyzed and published by Józef Milik in 1976) and of the Manichaean version of the same name (analyzed and published by Walter Bruno Henning in 1943) were found with the discovery in the twentieth century of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Judaean Desert and the Manichaean writings of the Uyghur Manichaean kingdom in Turpan. Henning wrote in his analysis of them:
By comparing the cosmology in the Book of Enoch literature and the Book of Giants, alongside the description of the Manichaean myth, scholars have observed that the Manichaean cosmology can be described as being based, in part, on the description of the cosmology developed in detail in the Book of Enoch literature. This literature describes the being that the prophets saw in their ascent to heaven, as a king who sits on a throne at the highest of the heavens. In the Manichaean description, this being, the "Great King of Honor", becomes a deity who guards the entrance to the world of light, placed at the seventh of ten heavens. In the Aramaic Book of Enoch, in the Qumran writings in general, and in the original Syriac section of Manichaean scriptures quoted by Theodore bar Konai, he is called "malka raba de-ikara" (the Great King of Honor).
Mani was also influenced by writings of the Assyrian gnostic Bardaisan (154–222), who, like Mani, wrote in Syriac, and presented a dualistic interpretation of the world in terms of light and darkness, in combination with elements from Christianity.
Noting Mani's travels to the Kushan Empire (several religious paintings in Bamyan are attributed to him) at the beginning of his proselytizing career, Richard Foltz postulates Buddhist influences in Manichaeism:
The Kushan monk Lokakṣema began translating Pure Land Buddhist texts into Chinese in the century prior to Mani arriving there, and the Chinese texts of Manichaeism are full of uniquely Buddhist terms taken directly from these Chinese Pure Land scriptures, including the term "pure land" (淨土 Jìngtǔ) itself. However, the central object of veneration in Pure Land Buddhism, Amitābha, the Buddha of Infinite Light, does not appear in Chinese Manichaeism, and seems to have been replaced by another deity.
Manichaeism spread with extraordinary speed through both the East and West. It reached Rome through the apostle Psattiq by 280, who was also in Egypt in 244 and 251. It was flourishing in the Faiyum in 290.
Manichaean monasteries existed in Rome in 312 during the time of Pope Miltiades.
In 291, persecution arose in the Sasanian Empire with the murder of the apostle Sisin by Emperor Bahram II, and the slaughter of many Manichaeans. In 296, Roman Emperor Diocletian decreed against the Manichaeans: "We order that their organizers and leaders be subject to the final penalties and condemned to the fire with their abominable scriptures." This resulted in martyrdom for many in Egypt and North Africa (see Diocletian Persecution). By 354, Hilary of Poitiers wrote that Manichaeism was a significant force in Roman Gaul. In 381, Christians requested Theodosius I to strip Manichaeans of their civil rights. Starting in 382, the emperor issued a series of edicts to suppress Manichaeism and punish its followers.
Augustine of Hippo (354–430) converted to Christianity from Manichaeism in the year 387. This was shortly after the Roman emperor Theodosius I had issued a decree of death for all Manichaean monks in 382 and shortly before he declared Christianity to be the only legitimate religion for the Roman Empire in 391. Due to the heavy persecution, the religion almost disappeared from western Europe in the fifth century and from the eastern portion of the empire in the sixth century. According to his "Confessions", after nine or ten years of adhering to the Manichaean faith as a member of the group of "hearers", Augustine became a Christian and a potent adversary of Manichaeism (which he expressed in writing against his Manichaean opponent Faustus of Mileve), seeing their beliefs that knowledge was the key to salvation as too passive and not able to effect any change in one's life.
Some modern scholars have suggested that Manichaean ways of thinking influenced the development of some of Augustine's ideas, such as the nature of good and evil, the idea of hell, the separation of groups into elect, hearers, and sinners, and the hostility to the flesh and sexual activity, and his dualistic theology. These influences of Manichaeism in Augustine's Christian thinking may well have been part of the conflict between Augustine and Pelagius, a British monk whose theology, being less influenced by the Latin Church, was non-dualistic, and one that saw the created order, and mankind in particular, as having a Divine core, rather than a 'darkness' at its core.
How Manichaeism might have influenced Christianity continues to be debated. Manichaeism could have influenced the Bogomils, Paulicians, and Cathars. However, these groups left few records, and the link between them and Manichaeans is tenuous. Regardless of its accuracy, the charge of Manichaeism was leveled at them by contemporary orthodox opponents, who often tried to make contemporary heresies conform to those combatted by the church fathers. Whether the dualism of the Paulicians, Bogomils, and Cathars and their belief that the world was created by a Satanic demiurge were due to influence from Manichaeism is impossible to determine. The Cathars apparently adopted the Manichaean principles of church organization. Priscillian and his followers may also have been influenced by Manichaeism. The Manichaeans preserved many apocryphal Christian works, such as the Acts of Thomas, that would otherwise have been lost.
Manichaeism maintained a sporadic and intermittent existence in the west (Mesopotamia, Africa, Spain, France, North Italy, the Balkans) for a thousand years, and flourished for a time in Persia and even further east in Northern India, Western China, and Tibet. While it had long been thought that Manichaeism arrived in China only at the end of the seventh century, a recent archaeological discovery demonstrated that it was already known there in the second half of the 6th century.
Some Sogdians in Central Asia believed in the religion. Uyghur khagan Boku Tekin (759–780) converted to the religion in 763 after a three-day discussion with its preachers, the Babylonian headquarters sent high rank clerics to Uyghur, and Manichaeism remained the state religion for about a century before the collapse of the Uyghur Khaganate in 840. In the east it spread along trade routes as far as Chang'an, the capital of Tang China. After the Tang Dynasty, some Manichaean groups participated in peasant movements. The religion was used by many rebel leaders to mobilise followers. In the Song and Yuan dynasties of China remnants of Manichaeism continued to leave a legacy contributing to sects such as the Red Turbans. During the Song Dynasty, the Manichaeans were derogatorily referred by the Chinese as "chicai simo" (meaning that they "abstain from meat and worship demons"). An account in "Fozu Tongji", an important historiography of Buddhism in China compiled by Buddhist scholars during 1258–1269, says that the Manichaeans worshipped the "white Buddha" and their leader wore a violet headgear, while the followers wore white costumes. Many Manichaeans took part in rebellions against the Song government and were eventually quelled. After that, all governments were suppressive against Manichaeism and its followers and the religion was banned by the Ming Dynasty in 1370.
Manichaeism spread to Tibet during the Tibetan Empire. There was likely a serious attempt to introduce the religion to the Tibetans as the text "Criteria of the Authentic Scriptures" (a text attributed to Tibetan Emperor Trisong Detsen) makes a great effort to attack Manichaeism by stating that Mani was a heretic who took ideas from all faiths and blended them together into a deviating and inauthentic form.
Manichaeans in Iran tried to assimilate their religion along with Islam in the Muslim caliphates. Relatively little is known about the religion during the first century of Islamic rule. During the early caliphates, Manichaeism attracted many followers. It had a significant appeal among the Muslim society, especially among the elites. Due to the appeal of its teachings, many Muslims adopted the ideas of its theology and some even became dualists. An apologia for Manichaeism ascribed to ibn al-Muqaffa' defended its phantasmagorical cosmogony and attacked the fideism of Islam and other monotheistic religions. The Manichaeans had sufficient structure to have a head of their community.
Under the eighth-century Abbasid Caliphate, Arabic "zindīq" and the adjectival term "zandaqa" could denote many different things, though it seems primarily (or at least initially) to have signified a follower of Manichaeism however its true meaning is not known. In the ninth century, it is reported that Caliph al-Ma'mun tolerated a community of Manichaeans.
During the early Abbasid period, the Manichaeans underwent persecution. The third Abbasid caliph, al-Mahdi, persecuted the Manichaeans, establishing an inquisition against dualists who if being found guilty of heresy refused to renounce their beliefs, were executed. Their persecution was finally ended in 780s by Harun al-Rashid. During the reign of the Caliph al-Muqtadir, many Manichaeans fled from Mesopotamia to Khorasan from fear of persecution and the base of the religion was later shifted to Samarkand.
Manichaeism claimed to present the complete version of teachings that were corrupted and misinterpreted by the followers of its predecessors Adam, Zoroaster, Buddha and Jesus. Accordingly, as it spread, it adapted new deities from other religions into forms it could use for its scriptures. Its original Aramaic texts already contained stories of Jesus. When they moved eastward and were translated into Iranian languages, the names of the Manichaean deities (or angels) were often transformed into the names of Zoroastrian yazatas. Thus "Abbā dəRabbūṯā" ("The Father of Greatness", the highest Manichaean deity of Light), in Middle Persian texts might either be translated literally as "pīd ī wuzurgīh", or substituted with the name of the deity "Zurwān". Similarly, the Manichaean primal figure "Nāšā Qaḏmāyā" "The Original Man" was rendered "Ohrmazd Bay", after the Zoroastrian god Ohrmazd. This process continued in Manichaeism's meeting with Chinese Buddhism, where, for example, the original Aramaic "qaryā" (the "call" from the World of Light to those seeking rescue from the World of Darkness), becomes identified in the Chinese scriptures with Guanyin ( or Avalokiteśvara in Sanskrit, literally, "watching/perceiving sounds [of the world]", the bodhisattva of Compassion).
Manichaeism was repressed by the Sasanian Empire. In 291, persecution arose in the Persian empire with the murder of the apostle Sisin by Bahram II, and the slaughter of many Manichaeans. In 296, the Roman emperor Diocletian decreed all the Manichaean leaders to be burnt alive along with the Manichaean scriptures and many Manichaeans in Europe and North Africa were killed. This policy of persecution was also followed by his successors. Theodosius I issued a decree of death for all Manichaean monks in 382 AD. The religion was vigorously attacked and persecuted by both the Christian Church and the Roman state, and the religion almost disappeared from western Europe in the fifth century and from the eastern portion of the empire in the sixth century.
In 732, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang banned any Chinese from converting to the religion, saying it was a heretic religion that was confusing people by claiming to be Buddhism. However, the foreigners who followed the religion were allowed to practice it without punishment. After the fall of the Uyghur Khaganate in 840, which was the chief patron of Manichaeism (which was also the state religion of the Khaganate) in China, all Manichaean temples in China except in the two capitals and Taiyuan were closed down and never reopened since these temples were viewed as a symbol of foreign arrogance by the Chinese (see Cao'an). Even those that were allowed to remain open did not for long. The Manichaean temples were attacked by Chinese people who burned the images and idols of these temples. Manichaean priests were ordered to wear hanfu instead of their traditional clothing, which was viewed as un-Chinese. In 843, Emperor Wuzong of Tang gave the order to kill all Manichaean clerics as part of his Great Anti-Buddhist Persecution, and over half died. They were made to look like Buddhists by the authorities, their heads were shaved, they were made to dress like Buddhist monks and then killed. Although the religion was mostly forbidden and its followers persecuted thereafter in China, it survived till the 14th century in the country. Under the Song dynasty, its followers were derogatorily referred to with the chengyu () "vegetarian demon-worshippers".
Many Manichaeans took part in rebellions against the Song dynasty. They were quelled by Song China and were suppressed and persecuted by all successive governments before the Mongol Yuan dynasty. In 1370, the religion was banned through an edict of the Ming dynasty, whose Hongwu Emperor had a personal dislike for the religion. Its core teaching influences many religious sects in China, including the White Lotus movement.
According to Wendy Doniger, Manichaeism may have continued to exist in the modern-East Turkestan region until the Mongol conquest in the 13th century.
Manicheans also suffered persecution for some time under the Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad. In 780, the third Abbasid Caliph, al-Mahdi, started a campaign of inquisition against those who were "dualist heretics" or "Manichaeans" called the "zindīq". He appointed a "master of the heretics" ( "ṣāhib al-zanādiqa"), an official whose task was to pursue and investigate suspected dualists, who were then examined by the Caliph. Those found guilty who refused to abjure their beliefs were executed. This persecution continued under his successor, Caliph al-Hadi, and continued for some time during reign of Harun al-Rashid, who finally abolished it and ended it. During the reign of the 18th Abbassid Caliph al-Muqtadir, many Manichaeans fled from Mesopotamia to Khorasan from fear of persecution by him and about 500 of them assembled in Samarkand. The base of the religion was later shifted to this city, which became their new Patriarchate.
Manichaean pamphlets were still in circulation in Greek in 9th century Byzantine Constantinople, as the patriarch Photios summarizes and discusses one that he has read by Agapius in his "Bibliotheca".
During the Middle Ages, several movements emerged that were collectively described as "Manichaean" by the Catholic Church, and persecuted as Christian heresies through the establishment, in 1184, of the Inquisition. They included the Cathar churches of Western Europe. Other groups sometimes referred to as "neo-Manichaean" were the Paulician movement, which arose in Armenia, and the Bogomils in Bulgaria. An example of this usage can be found in the published edition of the Latin Cathar text, the "Liber de duobus principiis" ("Book of the Two Principles"), which was described as "Neo-Manichaean" by its publishers. As there is no presence of Manichaean mythology or church terminology in the writings of these groups, there has been some dispute among historians as to whether these groups were descendants of Manichaeism.
Some sites are preserved in Xinjiang and Fujian in China. The Cao'an temple is the only fully intact Manichaean building, though it later became associated with Buddhism. Several small groups claim to continue to practice this faith.
Mani's teaching dealt with the origin of evil, by addressing a theoretical part of the problem of evil by denying the omnipotence of God and postulating two opposite powers. Manichaean theology taught a dualistic view of good and evil. A key belief in Manichaeism is that the powerful, though not omnipotent good power (God), was opposed by the eternal evil power (devil). Humanity, the world and the soul are seen as the by-product of the battle between God's proxy, Primal Man, and the devil. The human person is seen as a battle-ground for these powers: the soul defines the person, but it is under the influence of both light and dark. This contention plays out over the world as well as the human body—neither the Earth nor the flesh were seen as intrinsically evil, but rather possessed portions of both light and dark. Natural phenomena (such as rain) were seen as the physical manifestation of this spiritual contention. Therefore, the Manichaean view explained the existence of evil by positing a flawed creation in the formation of which God took no part and which constituted rather the product of a battle by the devil against God.
Manichaeism presented an elaborate description of the conflict between the spiritual world of light and the material world of darkness. The beings of both the world of darkness and the world of light have names. There are numerous sources for the details of the Manichaean belief. There are two portions of Manichaean scriptures that are probably the closest thing to the original Manichaean writings in their original languages that will ever be available. These are the Syriac-Aramaic quotation by the Nestorian Christian Theodore bar Konai, in his Syriac "Book of Scholia" ("Ketba de-Skolion"z, 8th century), and the Middle Persian sections of Mani's Shabuhragan discovered at Turpan (a summary of Mani's teachings prepared for Shapur I).
From these and other sources, it is possible to derive an almost complete description of the detailed Manichaean vision (a complete list of Manichaean deities is outlined below). According to Mani, the unfolding of the universe takes place with three "creations":
The First Creation: Originally, good and evil existed in two completely separate realms, one the "World of Light", ruled by the "Father of Greatness" together with his five "Shekhinas" (divine attributes of light), and the other the "World of Darkness", ruled by the "King of Darkness". At a certain point, the "Kingdom of Darkness" notices the "World of Light", becomes greedy for it and attacks it. The "Father of Greatness", in the first of three "creations" (or "calls"), calls to the "Mother of Life", who sends her son "Original Man" ("Nāšā Qaḏmāyā" in Aramaic), to battle with the attacking powers of Darkness, which include the "Demon of Greed". The "Original Man" is armed with five different shields of light (reflections of the five "Shekhinas"), which he loses to the forces of darkness in the ensuing battle, described as a kind of "bait" to trick the forces of darkness, as the forces of darkness greedily consume as much light as they can. When the "Original Man" comes to, he is trapped among the forces of darkness.
The Second Creation: Then the "Father of Greatness" begins the "Second Creation", calling to the "Living Spirit", who calls to his five sons, and sends a call to the "Original Man" ("Call" then becomes a Manichaean deity). An answer ("Answer" becomes another Manichaean deity) then returns from the "Original Man" to the "World of Light". The "Mother of Life", the "Living Spirit", and his five sons begin to create the universe from the bodies of the evil beings of the "World of Darkness", together with the light that they have swallowed. Ten heavens and eight earths are created, all consisting of various mixtures of the evil material beings from the "World of Darkness" and the swallowed light. The sun, moon, and stars are all created from light recovered from the "World of Darkness". The waxing and waning of the moon is described as the moon filling with light, which passes to the sun, then through the Milky Way, and eventually back to the "World of Light".
The Third Creation: Great demons (called "archons" in bar-Khonai's account) are hung out over the heavens, and then the "Father of Greatness" begins the "Third Creation". Light is recovered from out of the material bodies of the male and female evil beings and demons, by causing them to become sexually aroused in greed, towards beautiful images of the beings of light, such as the "Third Messenger" and the "Virgins of Light". However, as soon as the light is expelled from their bodies and falls to the earth (some in the form of abortions – the source of fallen angels in the Manichaean myth), the evil beings continue to swallow up as much of it as they can to keep the light inside of them. This results eventually in the evil beings swallowing huge quantities of light, copulating, and producing Adam and Eve. The "Father of Greatness" then sends the "Radiant Jesus" to awaken Adam, and to enlighten him to the true source of the light that is trapped in his material body. Adam and Eve, however, eventually copulate, and produce more human beings, trapping the light in bodies of mankind throughout human history. The appearance of the Prophet Mani was another attempt by the "World of Light" to reveal to mankind the true source of the spiritual light imprisoned within their material bodies.
Beginning with the time of its creation by Mani, the Manichaean religion had a detailed description of deities and events that took place within the Manichaean scheme of the universe. In every language and region that Manichaeism spread to, these same deities reappear, whether it is in the original Syriac quoted by Theodore bar Konai, or the Latin terminology given by Saint Augustine from Mani's "Epistola Fundamenti", or the Persian and Chinese translations found as Manichaeism spread eastward. While the original Syriac retained the original description that Mani created, the transformation of the deities through other languages and cultures produced incarnations of the deities not implied in the original Syriac writings.
The Manichaean Church was divided into the Elect, who had taken upon themselves the vows of Manicheaism, and the Hearers, those who had not, but still participated in the Church. The Elect were forbidden to consume alcohol and meat, as well as to harvest crops or prepare food, due to Mani's claim that harvesting was a form of murder against plants. The Hearers would therefore commit the sin of preparing food, and would provide it to the Elect, who would in turn pray for the Hearers and cleanse them of these sins. The terms for these divisions were already common since the days of early Christianity. In Chinese writings, the Middle Persian and Parthian terms are transcribed phonetically (instead of being translated into Chinese). These were recorded by Augustine of Hippo.
Evidently from Manichaean sources, Manichaeans observed daily prayers, either four for the "hearers" or seven for the "elects". The sources differ about the exact time of prayer. The "Fihrist" by al-Nadim, points them after noon, mid-afternoon, just after sunset and at nightfall. Al-Biruni places the prayers at noon, nightfall, dawn and sunrise. The elect additionally pray at mid-afternoon, half an hour after nightfall and at midnight. Al-Nadim's account of daily prayers is probably adjusted to coincide with the public prayers for the Muslims, while Al-Birunis report may reflect an older tradition unaffected by Islam. When Al-Nadims account of daily prayers had been the only detailed source available, there was a concern, that these practises had been only adapted by Muslims during the Abbasid Caliphate. However, it is clear that the Arabic text provided by Al-Nadim corresponds with the descriptions of Egyptian texts from the fourth Century.
Every prayer started with an ablution with water or, if water is not available, with other substances comparable to Ablution in Islam and consisted of several blessings to the apostales and spirits. The prayer consisted of prostrating oneself to the ground and rising again twelve times during every prayer. During day, Manichaeans turned towards the sun and during night towards the moon. If the moon is not visible at night, when they turned towards north. Evident from Faustus of Mileve, Celestial bodies are not the subject of worship themselves, but "ships" carrying the light particles of the world to the supreme god, who can not be seen, since he exists beyond time and space, and also the dwelling places for emanations of the supreme deity, such as Jesus the Splendour. According to the writings of Augustine of Hippo, ten prayers were performed, the first devoted to the Father of Greatness, and the following to lesser deities, spirits and angels and finally towards the elect, in order to be freed from rebirth and pain and to attain peace in the realm of light. Comparable, in the Uighur confession, four prayers are directed to the supreme God ("Äzrua"), the God of the Sun and the Moon, and fivefold God and the buddhas.
Mani wrote either seven or eight books, which contained the teachings of the religion. Only scattered fragments and translations of the originals remain.
The original six Syriac writings are not preserved, although their Syriac names have been. There are also fragments and quotations from them. A long quotation, preserved by the eighth-century Nestorian Christian author Theodore Bar Konai, shows that in the original Syriac Aramaic writings of Mani there was no influence of Iranian or Zoroastrian terms. The terms for the Manichaean deities in the original Syriac writings are in Aramaic. The adaptation of Manichaeism to the Zoroastrian religion appears to have begun in Mani's lifetime however, with his writing of the Middle Persian "Shabuhragan", his book dedicated to the Sasanian emperor, Shapur I. In it, there are mentions of Zoroastrian divinities such as Ahura Mazda, Angra Mainyu, and Āz. Manichaeism is often presented as a Persian religion, mostly due to the vast number of Middle Persian, Parthian, and Sogdian (as well as Turkish) texts discovered by German researchers near Turpan in what is now Xinjiang, China, during the early 1900s. However, from the vantage point of its original Syriac descriptions (as quoted by Theodore Bar Khonai and outlined above), Manichaeism may be better described as a unique phenomenon of Aramaic Babylonia, occurring in proximity to two other new Aramaic religious phenomena, Talmudic Judaism and Mandaeism, which also appeared in Babylonia in roughly the third century.
The original, but now lost, six sacred books of Manichaeism were composed in Syriac Aramaic, and translated into other languages to help spread the religion. As they spread to the east, the Manichaean writings passed through Middle Persian, Parthian, Sogdian, Tocharian, and ultimately Uyghur and Chinese translations. As they spread to the west, they were translated into Greek, Coptic, and Latin.
Henning describes how this translation process evolved and influenced the Manichaeans of Central Asia:
In later centuries, as Manichaeism passed through eastern Persian-speaking lands and arrived at the Uyghur Khaganate (回鶻帝國), and eventually the Uyghur kingdom of Turpan (destroyed around 1335), Middle Persian and Parthian prayers ("āfrīwan" or "āfurišn") and the Parthian hymn-cycles (the "Huwīdagmān" and "Angad Rōšnan" created by Mar Ammo) were added to the Manichaean writings. A translation of a collection of these produced the "Manichaean Chinese Hymnscroll" (, which Lieu translates as "Hymns for the Lower Section [i.e. the Hearers] of the Manichaean Religion"). In addition to containing hymns attributed to Mani, it contains prayers attributed to Mani's earliest disciples, including Mār Zaku, Mār Ammo and Mār Sīsin. Another Chinese work is a complete translation of the "Sermon of the Light Nous", presented as a discussion between Mani and his disciple Adda.
Until discoveries in the 1900s of original sources, the only sources for Manichaeism were descriptions and quotations from non-Manichaean authors, either Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, or Zoroastrian. While often criticizing Manichaeism, they also quoted directly from Manichaean scriptures. This enabled Isaac de Beausobre, writing in the 18th century, to create a comprehensive work on Manichaeism, relying solely on anti-Manichaean sources. Thus quotations and descriptions in Greek and Arabic have long been known to scholars, as have the long quotations in Latin by Saint Augustine, and the extremely important quotation in Syriac by Theodore Bar Konai.
Eusebius commented as follows:
An example of how inaccurate some of these accounts could be is seen in the account of the origins of Manichaeism contained in the "Acta Archelai". This was a Greek anti-manichaean work written before 348, most well known in its Latin version, which was regarded as an accurate account of Manichaeism until refuted by Isaac de Beausobre in the 18th century:
In the time of the Apostles there lived a man named Scythianus, who is described as coming "from Scythia", and also as being "a Saracen by race" ("ex genere Saracenorum"). He settled in Egypt, where he became acquainted with "the wisdom of the Egyptians", and invented the religious system that was afterwards known as Manichaeism. Finally he emigrated to Palestine, and, when he died, his writings passed into the hands of his sole disciple, a certain Terebinthus. The latter betook himself to Babylonia, assumed the name of Budda, and endeavoured to propagate his master's teaching. But he, like Scythianus, gained only one disciple, who was an old woman. After a while he died, in consequence of a fall from the roof of a house, and the books that he had inherited from Scythianus became the property of the old woman, who, on her death, bequeathed them to a young man named Corbicius, who had been her slave. Corbicius thereupon changed his name to Manes, studied the writings of Scythianus, and began to teach the doctrines that they contained, with many additions of his own. He gained three disciples, named Thomas, Addas, and Hermas. About this time the son of the Persian king fell ill, and Manes undertook to cure him; the prince, however, died, whereupon Manes was thrown into prison. He succeeded in escaping, but eventually fell into the hands of the king, by whose order he was flayed, and his corpse was hung up at the city gate.
A. A. Bevan, who quoted this story, commented that it "has no claim to be considered historical".
According to Hegemonius' portrayal of Mani, the evil demiurge who created the world was the Jewish Jehovah. Hegemonius reports that Mani said,
In the early 1900s, original Manichaean writings started to come to light when German scholars led by Albert Grünwedel, and then by Albert von Le Coq, began excavating at Gaochang, the ancient site of the Manichaean Uyghur Kingdom near Turpan, in Chinese Turkestan (destroyed around AD 1300). While most of the writings they uncovered were in very poor condition, there were still hundreds of pages of Manichaean scriptures, written in three Iranian languages (Middle Persian, Parthian, and Sogdian) and old Uyghur. These writings were taken back to Germany, and were analyzed and published at the Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften in Berlin, by Le Coq and others, such as Friedrich W. K. Müller and Walter Bruno Henning. While the vast majority of these writings were written in a version of the Syriac script known as Manichaean script, the German researchers, perhaps for lack of suitable fonts, published most of them using the Hebrew alphabet (which could easily be substituted for the 22 Syriac letters).
Perhaps the most comprehensive of these publications was "Manichaeische Dogmatik aus chinesischen und iranischen Texten" ("Manichaean Dogma from Chinese and Iranian texts"), by Ernst Waldschmidt and Wolfgang Lentz, published in Berlin in 1933. More than any other research work published before or since, this work printed, and then discussed, the original key Manichaean texts in the original scripts, and consists chiefly of sections from Chinese texts, and Middle Persian and Parthian texts transcribed with the Hebrew alphabet. After the Nazi Party gained power in Germany, the Manichaean writings continued to be published during the 1930s, but the publishers no longer used Hebrew letters, instead transliterating the texts into Latin letters.
Additionally, in 1930, German researchers in Egypt found a large body of Manichaean works in Coptic. Though these were also damaged, hundreds of complete pages survived and, beginning in 1933, were analyzed and published in Berlin before World War II, by German scholars such as Hans Jakob Polotsky. Some of these Coptic Manichaean writings were lost during the war.
After the success of the German researchers, French scholars visited China and discovered what is perhaps the most complete set of Manichaean writings, written in Chinese. These three Chinese writings, all found at the Mogao Caves among the Dunhuang manuscripts, and all written before the 9th century, are today kept in London, Paris, and Beijing. Some of the scholars involved with their initial discovery and publication were Édouard Chavannes, Paul Pelliot, and Aurel Stein. The original studies and analyses of these writings, along with their translations, first appeared in French, English, and German, before and after World War II. The complete Chinese texts themselves were first published in Tokyo, Japan in 1927, in the Taishō Tripiṭaka, volume 54. While in the last thirty years or so they have been republished in both Germany (with a complete translation into German, alongside the 1927 Japanese edition), and China, the Japanese publication remains the standard reference for the Chinese texts.
In Egypt, a small codex was found and became known through antique dealers in Cairo. It was purchased by the University of Cologne in 1969. Two of its scientists, Henrichs and Koenen, produced the first edition known since as the Cologne Mani-Codex, which was published in four articles in the "Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik". The ancient papyrus manuscript contained a Greek text describing the life of Mani. Thanks to this discovery, much more is known about the man who founded one of the most influential world religions of the past.
The terms "Manichaean" and "Manichaeism" are sometimes used figuratively as a synonym of the more general term "dualist" with respect to a philosophy, outlook or worldview. The terms are often used to suggest that the world view in question simplistically reduces the world to a struggle between good and evil. For example, Zbigniew Brzezinski used the phrase "Manichaean paranoia" in reference to U.S. President George W. Bush's world view (in "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart", 14 March 2007); Brzezinski elaborated that he meant "the notion that he [Bush] is leading the forces of good against the empire of evil". Author and journalist Glenn Greenwald followed up on the theme in describing Bush in his book "A Tragic Legacy" (2007).
The term is frequently used by critics to describe the attitudes and foreign policies of the United States and its leaders.
Philosopher Frantz Fanon frequently invoked the concept of Manicheanism in his discussions of violence between colonizers and the colonized.
In "My Secret History", author Paul Theroux's protagonist defines the word Manichaean for the protagonist's son as 'seeing that good and evil are mingled'. Prior to explaining the word to his son, the protagonist mentions Joseph Conrad's short story "The Secret Sharer" at least twice in the book, the plot of which also examines the idea of the duality of good and evil.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19760
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Moroccan cuisine
Moroccan cuisine is influenced by Morocco's interactions and exchanges with other cultures and nations over the centuries. Moroccan cuisine is typically a mix of Berber, Arab, Andalusi, and Mediterranean cuisines, with slight European and sub-Saharan influences.
Morocco produces a large range of Mediterranean fruits, vegetables and even some tropical ones. Common meats include beef, goat, mutton and lamb, chicken and seafood, which serve as a base for the cuisine. Characteristic flavorings include lemon pickle, argan oil, cold-pressed, unrefined olive oil and dried fruits. As in Mediterranean cuisine in general, the staple ingredients include wheat, used for bread and couscous, and olive oil; the third Mediterranean staple, the grape, is eaten as a dessert, though a certain amount of wine is made in the country.
Spices are used extensively in Moroccan food. Although some spices have been imported to Morocco through the Arabs for thousands of years, many ingredients—like saffron from Talaouine, mint and olives from Meknes, and oranges and lemons from Fes—are home-grown, and are being exported. Common spices include cinnamon, cumin, turmeric, ginger, paprika, coriander, saffron, mace, cloves, fennel, anise, nutmeg, cayenne pepper, fenugreek, caraway, black pepper and sesame seeds. Twenty-seven spices are combined for the famous Moroccan spice mixture "ras el hanout".
Common herbs in Moroccan cuisine include mint, parsley, coriander, oregano, peppermint, marjoram, verbena, sage and bay laurel.
A typical lunch meal begins with a series of hot and cold salads, followed by a tagine or Dwaz. Often, for a formal meal, a lamb or chicken dish is next, or couscous topped with meat and vegetables. Moroccans either eat with fork, knife and spoon or with their hands using bread as a utensil depending on the dish served. The consumption of pork and alcohol is uncommon due to religious restrictions.
The main Moroccan dish most people are familiar with is couscous, Beef is the most commonly eaten red meat in Morocco, usually eaten in a tagine with a wide selection of vegetables. Chicken is also very commonly used in tagines or roasted. They also use additional ingredients such as plums, boiled eggs, and lemon. Like their national food, the tagine has a unique taste of popular spices such as saffron, cumin, cinnamon, ginger, and cilantro, as well as ground red pepper.
Since Morocco lies on two coasts, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, Moroccan cuisine has ample seafood dishes. European pilchard is caught in large but declining quantities. Other fish species include mackerel, anchovy, sardinella, and horse mackerel.
Other famous Moroccan dishes are Pastilla (also spelled Basteeya or Bestilla), Tanjia, and Rfissa.
A big part of the daily meal is bread. Bread in Morocco is principally made from durum wheat semolina known as khobz. Bakeries are very common throughout Morocco and fresh bread is a staple in every city, town, and village. The most common is whole grain coarse ground or white flour bread or baguettes. There are also a number of flat breads and pulled unleavened pan-fried breads.
In addition, there are dried salted meats and salted preserved meats such as khlea and g'did (basically sheep bacon), which are used to flavor tagines or used in "el rghaif", a folded savory Moroccan pancake.
Harira, a typical heavy soup, eaten during winter to warm up and is usually served for dinner. It is typically eaten with plain bread or with dates during the month of Ramadan. Bissara is a broad bean-based soup that is also consumed during the colder months of the year.
Salads include both raw and cooked vegetables, served either hot or cold. Cold salads include "zaalouk," an aubergine and tomato mixture, and taktouka (a mixture of tomatoes, smoked green peppers, garlic, and spices) characteristic of the cities of Taza and Fes, in the Atlas. Another cold salad is called Bakoula, or Khoubiza. It consists of braised mallow leaves, but can also be made with spinach or arugula, with parsley, cilantro, lemon, olive oil, and olives.
Usually, seasonal fruits rather than cooked desserts are served at the close of a meal. A common dessert is "kaab el ghzal" (, "gazelle ankles"), a pastry stuffed with almond paste and topped with sugar. Another is "Halwa chebakia", pretzel-shaped dough deep-fried, soaked in honey and sprinkled with sesame seeds; it is eaten during the month of Ramadan. "Jowhara" is a delicacy typical of Fes, made with fried "waraq" pastry, cream, orange blossom water, and toasted almond slices. Coconut fudge cakes, 'Zucre Coco', are popular also.
Morocco is endowed with over 3000 km of coastline. There is an abundance of fish in these coastal waters with the sardine being commercially significant as Morocco is the world's largest exporter. Sardines were used in the production of garum in Lixus.
At Moroccan fish markets one can find sole, swordfish, tuna, tarbot, mackerel, shrimp, congre eel, skate, red snapper, spider crab, lobster and a variety of mollusks.
In Moroccan cuisine, seafood is incorporated into, among others: tajines, bastilla, briwat, and paella.
The most popular drink is green tea with mint. Traditionally, making good mint tea in Morocco is considered an art form and the drinking of it with friends and family is often a daily tradition. The pouring technique is as crucial as the quality of the tea itself. Moroccan tea pots have long, curved pouring spouts and this allows the tea to be poured evenly into tiny glasses from a height. For the best taste, glasses are filled in two stages. The Moroccans traditionally like tea with bubbles, so while pouring they hold the teapot high above the glasses. Finally, the tea is accompanied with hard sugar cones or lumps. Morocco has an abundance of oranges and tangerines, so fresh orange juice is easily found freshly squeezed and is cheap.
Selling fast food in the street has long been a tradition, and the best example is Djemaa el Fna square in Marrakech. Starting in the 1980s, new snack restaurants started serving "Bocadillo" (a Spanish word for a sandwich).
Dairy product shops locally called Mhlaba, are very prevalent all around the country. Those dairy stores generally offer all types of dairy products, juices, and local delicacies such as Bocadillos, Msemen and Harcha.
Another popular street food in Morocco is the snails, which are served in their stew in small bowls and eaten using a toothpick.
In the late 1990s, several multinational fast-food franchises opened restaurants in major cities.
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Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren ( ; born Maarten Van Buren; December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was an American statesman who served as the eighth president of the United States from 1837 to 1841. He was the first president to speak English as a second language – his mother tongue was Dutch – and the first born after the United States had declared its independence from Great Britain. A founder of the Democratic Party, he had previously served as the ninth governor of New York, the tenth United States secretary of state, and the eighth vice president of the United States. He won the 1836 presidential election with the endorsement of popular outgoing President Andrew Jackson and the organizational strength of the Democratic Party. He lost his 1840 reelection bid to Whig Party nominee William Henry Harrison, thanks in part to the poor economic conditions surrounding the Panic of 1837. Later in his life, Van Buren emerged as an elder statesman and an important anti-slavery abolitionist leader who led the Free Soil Party ticket in the presidential election of 1848.
Van Buren was born in Kinderhook, New York, to a family of Dutch Americans; his father was a Patriot during the American Revolution. He was raised speaking Dutch and learned English at school, making him the only U.S. president to speak English as his second language. He trained as a lawyer and quickly became involved in politics as a member of the Democratic-Republican Party. He won election to the New York State Senate and became the leader of the Bucktails, the faction of Democratic-Republicans opposed to New York Governor DeWitt Clinton. Van Buren established a political machine known as the Albany Regency and in the 1820s emerged as the most influential politician in the Empire State. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1821 and supported William H. Crawford in the 1824 presidential election. John Quincy Adams won the 1824 election and Van Buren opposed his proposals for federally funded internal improvements and other measures. Van Buren's major political goal was to re-establish a two-party system with partisan differences based on ideology rather than personalities or sectional differences, and he supported Jackson's candidacy against Adams in the 1828 presidential election with this goal in mind. To support Jackson's candidacy, Van Buren ran for Governor of New York; he won, but resigned a few months after assuming the position to accept appointment as U.S. Secretary of State after Jackson took office in March 1829.
Van Buren was a key advisor during Jackson's eight years as President of the United States and he built the organizational structure for the coalescing Democratic Party, particularly in New York. He resigned from his position to help resolve the Petticoat affair, then briefly served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom. At Jackson's behest, the 1832 Democratic National Convention nominated Van Buren for Vice President of the United States, and he took office after the Democratic ticket won the 1832 presidential election. With Jackson's strong support, Van Buren faced little opposition for the presidential nomination at the 1835 Democratic National Convention, and he defeated several Whig opponents in the 1836 presidential election. Van Buren's response to the Panic of 1837 centered on his Independent Treasury system, a plan under which the Federal government of the United States would store its funds in vaults rather than in banks. He also continued Jackson's policy of Indian removal; he maintained peaceful relations with Britain but denied the application to admit Texas to the Union, seeking to avoid heightened sectional tensions. In the 1840 election, the Whigs rallied around Harrison's military record and ridiculed Van Buren as "Martin Van Ruin", and a surge of new voters helped turn him out of office.
At the opening of the Democratic convention in 1844, Van Buren was the leading candidate for the party's nomination for the presidency. Southern Democrats, however, were angered by his continued opposition to the annexation of Texas, and the party nominated James K. Polk. Van Buren grew increasingly opposed to slavery after he left office, and he agreed to lead a third party ticket in the 1848 presidential election, motivated additionally by intra-party differences at the state and national level. He finished in a distant third nationally, but his presence in the race most likely helped Whig nominee Zachary Taylor defeat Democrat Lewis Cass. Van Buren returned to the Democratic fold after the 1848 election, but he supported Abraham Lincoln's policies during the American Civil War. His health began to fail in 1861, and he died in July 1862, at age 79. He has been generally ranked as an average or below-average U.S. president by historians and political scientists.
Van Buren was born as Maarten Van Buren on December 5, 1782, in Kinderhook, New York, about south of Albany on the Hudson River. By American law, he was the first U.S. president not born a British subject, nor of British ancestry.
His father, Abraham Van Buren, was a descendant of Cornelis Maessen of the village of Buurmalsen in Netherlands, who had come to North America in 1631, and purchased a plot of land on Manhattan Island. Abraham Van Buren had been a Patriot during the American Revolution, and he later joined the Democratic-Republican Party. He owned an inn and tavern in Kinderhook and served as Kinderhook's town clerk for several years. In 1776, he married Maria Hoes Van Alen in the town of Kinderhook, also of Dutch extraction and the widow of Johannes Van Alen. She had three children from her first marriage, including future U.S. Representative James I. Van Alen. Her second marriage produced five children, including Martin. Van Buren spoke English as a second language, unlike any other president; his primary language in youth was Dutch.
Van Buren received a basic education at the village schoolhouse and briefly studied Latin at the Kinderhook Academy and at Washington Seminary in Claverack. His formal education ended in 1796, when he began reading law at the office of Peter Silvester and his son Francis, prominent Federalist Party attorneys in Kinderhook. At his father's inn, Van Buren learned early to interact with people from varied ethnic, income, and societal groups, which he used to his advantage as a political organizer.
Van Buren was small in stature at tall and affectionately nicknamed "Little Van". When he first began his legal studies, he wore rough, homespun clothing, causing the Silvesters to admonish him to pay greater heed to his clothing and personal appearance as an aspiring lawyer. He accepted their advice and subsequently emulated the Silvesters' clothing, appearance, bearing, and conduct.
Van Buren adopted the Democratic-Republican political leanings of his father, despite his association with the Silvesters and Kinderhook's strong affiliation with the Federalist Party. The Silvesters and Democratic-Republican political figure John Peter Van Ness suggested that Van Buren's political leanings constrained him to complete his education with a Democratic-Republican attorney, so he spent a final year of apprenticeship in the New York City office of John Van Ness's brother William P. Van Ness, a political lieutenant of Aaron Burr. Van Ness introduced Van Buren to the intricacies of New York state politics, and Van Buren observed Burr's battles for control of the state Democratic-Republican party against George Clinton and Robert R. Livingston. He returned to Kinderhook in 1803, after being admitted to the New York bar.
Van Buren married Hannah Hoes in Catskill, New York, on February 21, 1807, his childhood sweetheart and a daughter of his first cousin. Like Van Buren, she was raised in a Dutch home in Valatie; she spoke primarily Dutch, and spoke English with a marked accent. The couple had five children, four of whom lived to adulthood: Abraham (1807–1873), John (1810–1866), Martin Jr. (1812–1855), Winfield Scott (born and died in 1814), and Smith Thompson (1817–1876). Hannah contracted tuberculosis and died on February 5, 1819, at age 35, and Van Buren never remarried.
Upon returning to Kinderhook in 1803, Van Buren formed a law partnership with his half-brother, James Van Alen, and became financially secure enough to increase his focus on politics. Van Buren had been active in politics from age 18, if not before. In 1801, he attended a Democratic-Republican Party convention in Troy, New York where he worked successfully to secure for John Peter Van Ness the party nomination in a special election for the 6th Congressional District seat. Upon returning to Kinderhook, Van Buren broke with the Burr faction, becoming an ally of both DeWitt Clinton and Daniel D. Tompkins. After the faction led by Clinton and Tompkins dominated the 1807 elections, Van Buren was appointed Surrogate of Columbia County, New York. Seeking to find a better base for his political and legal career, Van Buren and his family moved to the town of Hudson, the seat of Columbia County, in 1808. Van Buren's legal practice continued to flourish, and he traveled all over the state to represent various clients.
In 1812, Van Buren won his party's nomination for a seat in the New York State Senate. Though several Democratic-Republicans, including John Peter Van Ness, joined with the Federalists to oppose his candidacy, Van Buren won election to the state senate in mid-1812. Later in the year, the United States entered the War of 1812 against Great Britain, while Clinton launched an unsuccessful bid to defeat President James Madison in the 1812 presidential election. After the election, Van Buren became suspicious that Clinton was working with the Federalist Party, and he broke from his former political ally.
During the War of 1812, Van Buren worked with Clinton, Governor Tompkins, and Ambrose Spencer to support the Madison administration's prosecution of the war. In addition, he was a special judge advocate appointed to serve as a prosecutor of William Hull during Hull's court-martial following the surrender of Detroit. Anticipating another military campaign, he collaborated with Winfield Scott on ways to reorganize the New York Militia in the winter of 1814–1815, but their work was halted by the end of the war in early 1815. Van Buren was so favorably impressed by Scott that he named his fourth son after him. Van Buren's strong support for the war boosted his standing, and in 1815, he was elected to the position of New York Attorney General. Van Buren moved from Hudson to the state capital of Albany, where he established a legal partnership with Benjamin Butler, and shared a house with political ally Roger Skinner. In 1816, Van Buren won re-election to the state senate, and he would continue to simultaneously serve as both state senator and as the state's attorney general. In 1819, he played an active part in prosecuting the accused murderers of Richard Jennings, the first murder-for-hire case in the state of New York.
After Tompkins was elected as vice president in the 1816 presidential election, Clinton defeated Van Buren's preferred candidate, Peter Buell Porter, in the 1817 New York gubernatorial election. Clinton threw his influence behind the construction of the Erie Canal, an ambitious project designed to connect Lake Erie to the Atlantic Ocean. Though many of Van Buren's allies urged him to block Clinton's Erie Canal bill, Van Buren believed that the canal would benefit the state. His support for the bill helped it win approval from the New York legislature. Despite his support for the Erie Canal, Van Buren became the leader of an anti-Clintonian faction in New York known as the "Bucktails".
The Bucktails succeeded in emphasizing party loyalty and used it to capture and control many patronage posts throughout New York. Through his use of patronage, loyal newspapers, and connections with local party officials and leaders, Van Buren established what became known as the "Albany Regency", a political machine that emerged as an important factor in New York politics. The Regency relied on a coalition of small farmers, but also enjoyed support from the Tammany Hall machine in New York City. Van Buren largely determined Tammany Hall's political policy for the Democratic-Republicans in this era.
A New York state referendum that expanded state voting rights to all white men in 1821, and which further increased the power of Tammany Hall, was guided by Van Buren. Although Governor Clinton remained in office until late 1822, Van Buren emerged as the leader of the state's Democratic-Republicans after the 1820 elections. Van Buren was a member of the 1820 state constitutional convention, where he favored expanded voting rights, but opposed universal suffrage and tried to maintain property requirements for voting.
In February 1821, the state legislature elected Van Buren to represent New York in the United States Senate. Van Buren arrived in Washington during the "Era of Good Feelings", a period in which partisan distinctions at the national level had faded. Van Buren quickly became a prominent figure in Washington, D.C., befriending Secretary of the Treasury William H. Crawford, among others. Though not an exceptional orator, Van Buren frequently engaged in debate on the Senate floor, usually after extensively researching the subject at hand. Despite his commitments as a father and state party leader, Van Buren remained closely engaged in his legislative duties, and during his time in the Senate he served as the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee. As he gained renown, Van Buren earned monikers like "Little Magician" and "Sly Fox".
Van Buren chose to back Crawford over John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, and Henry Clay in the presidential election of 1824. Crawford shared Van Buren's affinity for Jeffersonian principles of states' rights and limited government, and Van Buren believed that Crawford was the ideal figure to lead a coalition of New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia's "Richmond Junto". Van Buren's support for Crawford aroused strong opposition in New York in the form of the People's party, which drew support from Clintonians, Federalists, and others opposed to Van Buren. Nonetheless, Van Buren helped Crawford win the Democratic-Republican party's presidential nomination at the February 1824 congressional nominating caucus. The other Democratic-Republican candidates in the race refused to accept the poorly-attended caucus's decision, and as the Federalist Party had virtually ceased to function as a national party, the 1824 campaign became a competition among four candidates of the same party. Though Crawford suffered a severe stroke that left him in poor health, Van Buren continued to support his chosen candidate. Van Buren met with Thomas Jefferson in May 1824 in an attempt to bolster Crawford's candidacy, and though he was unsuccessful in gaining a public endorsement for Crawford, he nonetheless cherished the chance to meet with his political hero.
The 1824 elections dealt a severe blow to the Albany Regency, as Clinton returned to the governorship with the support of the People's party. By the time the state legislature convened to choose the state's presidential electors, results from other states had made it clear that no individual would win a majority of the electoral vote, necessitating a contingent election in the United States House of Representatives. While Adams and Jackson were assured of finishing in the top three, and thus being eligible for selection in the contingent election, New York's electors would help determine whether Clay or Crawford would finish third. Though most of the state's electoral votes went to Adams, Crawford won one more electoral vote than Clay in the state, and Clay's defeat in Louisiana left Crawford in third place. With Crawford still in the running, Van Buren lobbied members of the House to support him. He hoped to engineer a Crawford victory on the second ballot of the contingent election, but Adams won on the first ballot with the help of Clay and Stephen Van Rensselaer, a Congressman from New York. Despite his close ties with Van Buren, Van Rensselaer cast his vote for Adams, thus giving Adams a narrow majority of New York's delegation and a victory in the contingent election.
After the House contest, Van Buren shrewdly kept out of the controversy which followed, and began looking forward to 1828. Jackson was angered to see the presidency go to Adams despite having won more popular votes than he had, and he eagerly looked forward to a rematch. Jackson's supporters accused Adams and Clay of having engaged in a "corrupt bargain" in which Clay helped Adams win the contingent election in return for Clay's appointment as Secretary of State. Always notably courteous in his treatment of opponents, Van Buren showed no bitterness toward either Adams or Clay, and he voted to confirm Clay's nomination to the cabinet. At the same time, Van Buren opposed the Adams-Clay plans for internal improvements like roads and canals and declined to support U.S. participation in the Congress of Panama. Van Buren considered Adams's proposals to represent a return to the Hamiltonian economic model favored by Federalists, which he strongly opposed. Despite his opposition to Adams's public policies, Van Buren was able to easily secure re-election in his own divided home state in 1827.
Van Buren's overarching goal at the national level was to restore a two-party system with party cleavages based on philosophical differences, and he viewed the old divide between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans as the best state of affairs for the nation. Van Buren believed that these national parties helped ensure that elections were decided on national, rather than sectional or local, issues; as he put it, "party attachment in former times furnished a complete antidote for sectional prejudices". After the 1824 election, Van Buren was initially somewhat skeptical of Jackson, who had not taken strong positions on most policy issues. Nonetheless, he settled on Jackson as the one candidate who could beat Adams in the 1828 presidential election, and he worked to bring Crawford's former backers into line behind Jackson.
He also forged alliances with other members of Congress opposed to Adams, including Vice President John C. Calhoun, Senator Thomas Hart Benton, and Senator John Randolph. Seeking to solidify his own standing in New York and bolster Jackson's campaign, Van Buren helped arrange the passage of the Tariff of 1828, which opponents labeled as the "Tariff of Abominations". The tariff satisfied many who sought protection from foreign competition, but angered Southern cotton interests and New Englanders. Because Van Buren believed that the South would never support Adams, and New England would never support Jackson, he was willing to alienate both regions through passage of the tariff.
Meanwhile, Clinton's death from a heart attack in 1828 dramatically shook up the politics of Van Buren's home state, while the Anti-Masonic Party emerged as an increasingly important factor. After some initial reluctance, Van Buren chose to run for Governor of New York in the 1828 election. Hoping that a Jackson victory would lead to his own elevation to Secretary of State or Secretary of the Treasury, Van Buren chose Enos T. Throop as his running mate and preferred successor. Van Buren's candidacy was aided by the split between supporters of Adams, who had adopted the label of National Republicans, and the Anti-Masonic Party.
Reflecting his public association with Jackson, Van Buren accepted the gubernatorial nomination on a ticket that called itself "Jacksonian-Democrat". He campaigned on local as well as national issues, emphasizing his opposition to the policies of the Adams administration. Van Buren ran ahead of Jackson, winning the state by 30,000 votes compared to a margin of 5,000 for Jackson. Nationally, Jackson defeated Adams by a wide margin, winning nearly every state outside of New England. After the election, Van Buren resigned from the Senate to start his term as governor, which began on January 1, 1829. While his term as governor was short, he did manage to pass the Bank Safety Fund Law, an early form of deposit insurance, through the legislature. He also appointed several key supporters, including William L. Marcy and Silas Wright, to important state positions.
In February 1829, Jackson wrote to Van Buren to ask him to become Secretary of State. Van Buren quickly agreed, and he resigned as governor the following month; his tenure of forty-three days is the shortest of any Governor of New York. No serious diplomatic crises arose during Van Buren's tenure as Secretary of State, but he achieved several notable successes, such as settling long-standing claims against France and winning reparations for property that had been seized during the Napoleonic Wars. He reached an agreement with the British to open trade with the British West Indies colonies and concluded a treaty with the Ottoman Empire that gained American merchants access to the Black Sea. Items on which he did not achieve success included settling the Maine-New Brunswick boundary dispute with Great Britain, gaining settlement of the U.S. claim to the Oregon Country, concluding a commercial treaty with Russia, and persuading Mexico to sell Texas.
In addition to his foreign policy duties, Van Buren quickly emerged as an important adviser to Jackson on major domestic issues like the tariff and internal improvements. The Secretary of State was instrumental in convincing Jackson to issue the Maysville Road veto, which both reaffirmed limited government principles and also helped prevent the construction of infrastructure projects that could potentially compete with New York's Erie Canal. He also became involved in a power struggle with Calhoun over appointments and other issues, including the Petticoat Affair. The Petticoat Affair arose because Peggy Eaton, wife of Secretary of War John H. Eaton, was ostracized by the other cabinet wives due to circumstances surrounding her marriage.
Led by Floride Calhoun, wife of Vice President Calhoun, the other cabinet wives refused to pay courtesy calls to the Eatons, receive them as visitors, or invite them to social events. As a widower, Van Buren was unaffected by the position of the cabinet wives. Van Buren initially sought to conciliate the divide in the cabinet, but most of the leading citizens in Washington continued to snub the Eatons. Jackson was personally close to Eaton, and he came to the conclusion that the allegations against Eaton arose from a plot against his administration led by Henry Clay. The Petticoat Affair, combined with a contentious debate over the tariff and Calhoun's decade-old criticisms of Jackson's actions in the First Seminole War, contributed to a split between Jackson and Calhoun. As the debate over the tariff and the proposed ability of South Carolina to nullify federal law consumed Washington, Van Buren increasingly emerged as Jackson's likely successor.
The Petticoat affair was finally resolved when Van Buren offered to resign. In April 1831, Jackson accepted and reorganized his cabinet by asking for the resignations of the anti-Eaton cabinet members. Postmaster General William T. Barry, who had sided with the Eatons in the Petticoat Affair, was the lone cabinet member to remain in office. The cabinet reorganization removed Calhoun's allies from the Jackson administration, and Van Buren had a major role in shaping the new cabinet. After leaving office, Van Buren continued to play a part in the Kitchen Cabinet, Jackson's informal circle of advisers.
In August 1831, Jackson gave Van Buren a recess appointment as the ambassador to Britain, and Van Buren arrived in London in September. He was cordially received, but in February 1832, he learned his nomination had been rejected by the Senate. The rejection of Van Buren was essentially the work of Calhoun. When the vote on Van Buren's nomination was taken, enough pro-Calhoun Jacksonians refrained from voting to produce a tie, which allowed Calhoun to cast the deciding vote against Van Buren.
Calhoun was elated, convinced that he had ended Van Buren's career. "It will kill him dead, sir, kill him dead. He will never kick, sir, never kick", Calhoun exclaimed to a friend. Calhoun's move backfired; by making Van Buren appear the victim of petty politics, Calhoun raised Van Buren in both Jackson's regard and the esteem of others in the Democratic Party. Far from ending Van Buren's career, Calhoun's action gave greater impetus to Van Buren's candidacy for vice president.
Seeking to ensure that Van Buren would replace Calhoun as his running mate, Jackson had arranged for a national convention of his supporters. The May 1832 Democratic National Convention subsequently nominated Van Buren to serve as the party's vice presidential nominee. Van Buren won the nomination over Philip Pendleton Barbour (Calhoun's favored candidate) and Richard Mentor Johnson due to the support of Jackson and the strength of the Albany Regency. Upon Van Buren's return from Europe in July 1832, he became involved in the Bank War, a struggle over the re-charter of the Second Bank of the United States.
Van Buren had long been distrustful of banks, and he viewed the Bank as an extension of the Hamiltonian economic program, so he supported Jackson's veto of the Bank's re-charter. Henry Clay, the presidential nominee of the National Republicans, made the struggle over the Bank the key issue of the presidential election of 1832. The Jackson–Van Buren ticket won the 1832 election by a landslide, and Van Buren took office as vice president in March 1833. During the Nullification Crisis, Van Buren counseled Jackson to pursue a policy of conciliation with South Carolina leaders. He played little direct role in the passage of the Tariff of 1833, but he quietly hoped that the tariff would help bring an end to the Nullification Crisis, which it did.
As Vice President, Van Buren continued to be one of Jackson's primary advisors and confidants, and accompanied Jackson on his tour of the northeastern United States in 1833. Jackson's struggle with the Second Bank of the United States continued, as the president sought to remove federal funds from the Bank. Though initially apprehensive of the removal due to congressional support for the Bank, Van Buren eventually came to support Jackson's policy. He also helped undermine a fledgling alliance between Jackson and Daniel Webster, a senator from Massachusetts who could have potentially threatened Van Buren's project to create two parties separated by policy differences rather than personalities. During Jackson's second term, the president's supporters began to refer to themselves as members of the Democratic Party. Meanwhile, those opposed to Jackson, including Clay's National Republicans, followers of Calhoun, and many members of the Anti-Masonic Party, coalesced into the Whig Party.
President Andrew Jackson declined to seek another term in the 1836 presidential election, but he remained influential within the Democratic Party as his second term came to an end. Jackson was determined to help elect Van Buren in 1836 so that the latter could continue the Jackson administration's policies. the two men-–the charismatic "Old Hickory" and the super-efficient "Sly Fox"--had entirely different personalities but had become an effective team in eight years in office together. With Jackson's support, Van Buren won the presidential nomination of the 1835 Democratic National Convention without opposition. Two names were put forward for the vice-presidential nomination: Representative Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky, and former Senator William Cabell Rives of Virginia. Southern Democrats, and Van Buren himself, strongly preferred Rives. Jackson, on the other hand, strongly preferred Johnson. Again, Jackson's considerable influence prevailed, and Johnson received the required two-thirds vote after New York Senator Silas Wright prevailed upon non-delegate Edward Rucker to cast the 15 votes of the absent Tennessee delegation in Johnson's favor.
Van Buren's competitors in the election of 1836 were three members of the Whig Party, which remained a loose coalition bound by mutual opposition to Jackson's anti-bank policies. Lacking the party unity or organizational strength to field a single ticket or define a single platform, the Whigs ran several regional candidates in hopes of sending the election to the House of Representatives. The three candidates were: Hugh Lawson White of Tennessee, Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, and William Henry Harrison of Indiana. Besides endorsing internal improvements and a national bank, the Whigs tried to tie Democrats to abolitionism and sectional tension, and attacked Jackson for "acts of aggression and usurpation of power".
Southern voters represented the biggest potential impediment in Van Buren's quest for the presidency, as many were suspicious of a Northern president. Van Buren moved to obtain the support of southerners by assuring them that he opposed abolitionism and supported the maintaining of slavery in states where it had already existed. To demonstrate consistency regarding his opinions on slavery, Van Buren cast the tie-breaking Senate vote in favor of a bill to subject abolitionist mail to state laws, thus ensuring that its circulation would be prohibited in the South. Van Buren personally considered slavery to be immoral, but sanctioned by the Constitution.
Van Buren won the election with 764,198 popular votes, 50.9% of the total, and 170 electoral votes. Harrison led the Whigs with 73 electoral votes, White receiving 26, and Webster 14. Willie Person Mangum received South Carolina's 11 electoral votes, which were awarded by the state legislature. Van Buren's victory resulted from a combination of his own attractive political and personal qualities, Jackson's popularity and endorsement, the organizational power of the Democratic party, and the inability of the Whig Party to muster an effective candidate and campaign. Virginia's presidential electors voted for Van Buren for president, but voted for William Smith for vice president, leaving Johnson one electoral vote short of election. In accordance with the Twelfth Amendment, the Senate elected Johnson vice president in a contingent vote.
The election of 1836 marked an important turning point in American political history because it saw the establishment of the Second Party System. In the early 1830s, the political party structure was still changing, rapidly, and factional and personal leaders continued to play a major role in politics. By the end of the campaign of 1836, the new party system was almost complete, as nearly every faction had been absorbed by either the Democrats or the Whigs.
Van Buren retained much of Jackson's cabinet and lower-level appointees, as he hoped that the retention of Jackson's appointees would stop Whig momentum in the South and restore confidence in the Democrats as a party of sectional unity. The cabinet holdovers represented the different regions of the country: Secretary of the Treasury Levi Woodbury came from New England, Attorney General Benjamin F. Butler and Secretary of the Navy Mahlon Dickerson hailed from mid-Atlantic states, Secretary of State John Forsyth represented the South, and Postmaster General Amos Kendall of Kentucky represented the West.
For the lone open position of Secretary of War, Van Buren first approached William Cabell Rives, who had sought the vice presidency in 1836. After Rives declined to join the cabinet, Van Buren appointed Joel Roberts Poinsett, a South Carolinian who had opposed secession during the Nullification Crisis. Van Buren's cabinet choices were criticized by Pennsylvanians such as James Buchanan, who argued that their state deserved a cabinet position as well as some Democrats who argued that Van Buren should have used his patronage powers to augment his own power. However, Van Buren saw value in avoiding contentious patronage battles, and his decision to retain Jackson's cabinet made it clear that he intended to continue the policies of his predecessor. Additionally, Van Buren had helped select Jackson's cabinet appointees and enjoyed strong working relationships with them.
Van Buren held regular formal cabinet meetings and discontinued the informal gatherings of advisers that had attracted so much attention during Jackson's presidency. He solicited advice from department heads, tolerated open and even frank exchanges between cabinet members, perceiving himself as "a mediator, and to some extent an umpire between the conflicting opinions" of his counselors. Such detachment allowed the president to reserve judgment and protect his own prerogative for making final decisions. These open discussions gave cabinet members a sense of participation and made them feel part of a functioning entity, rather than isolated executive agents. Van Buren was closely involved in foreign affairs and matters pertaining to the Treasury Department, but the Post Office, War Department, and Navy Department all had possessed high levels of autonomy under their respective cabinet secretaries.
When Van Buren entered office, the nation's economic health had taken a turn for the worse and the prosperity of the early 1830s was over. Two months into his presidency, on May 10, 1837, some important state banks in New York, running out of hard currency reserves, refused to convert paper money into gold or silver, and other financial institutions throughout the nation quickly followed suit. This financial crisis would become known as the Panic of 1837. The Panic was followed by a five-year depression in which banks failed and unemployment reached record highs.
Van Buren blamed the economic collapse on greedy American and foreign business and financial institutions, as well as the over-extension of credit by U.S. banks. Whig leaders in Congress blamed the Democrats, along with Andrew Jackson's economic policies, specifically his 1836 Specie Circular. Cries of "rescind the circular!" went up and former president Jackson sent word to Van Buren asking him not to rescind the order, believing that it had to be given enough time to work. Others, like Nicholas Biddle, believed that Jackson's dismantling of the Bank of the United States was directly responsible for the irresponsible creation of paper money by the state banks which had precipitated this panic. The Panic of 1837 loomed large over the 1838 election cycle, as the carryover effects of the economic downturn led to Whig gains in both the U.S. House and Senate. The state elections in 1837 and 1838 were also disastrous for the Democrats, and the partial economic recovery in 1838 was offset by a second commercial crisis later that year.
To address the crisis, the Whigs proposed rechartering the national bank. The president countered by proposing the establishment of an independent U.S. treasury, which he contended would take the politics out of the nation's money supply. Under the plan, the government would hold all of its money balances in the form of gold or silver, and would be restricted from printing paper money at will; both measures were designed to prevent inflation. The plan would permanently separate the government from private banks by storing government funds in government vaults rather than in private banks. Van Buren announced his proposal in September 1837, but an alliance of conservative Democrats and Whigs prevented it from becoming law until 1840. As the debate continued, conservative Democrats like Rives defected to the Whig Party, which itself grew more unified in its opposition to Van Buren. The Whigs would abolish the Independent Treasury system in 1841, but it was revived in 1846, and remained in place until the passage of the Federal Reserve Act in 1913. More important for Van Buren's immediate future, the depression would be a major issue in his upcoming re-election campaign.
Federal policy under Jackson had sought to move Indian tribes to lands west of the Mississippi River through the Indian Removal Act of 1830, and the federal government negotiated 19 treaties with Indian tribes during Van Buren's presidency. The 1835 Treaty of New Echota signed by government officials and representatives of the Cherokee tribe had established terms under which the Cherokees ceded their territory in the southeast and agreed to move west to Oklahoma. In 1838, Van Buren directed General Winfield Scott to forcibly move all those who had not yet complied with the treaty.
The Cherokees were herded violently into internment camps where they were kept for the summer of 1838. The actual transportation west was delayed by intense heat and drought, but they were forcibly marched west in the fall. Under the treaty, the government was supposed to provide wagons, rations, and even medical doctors, but it did not. Some 20,000 people were relocated against their will during the Cherokee removal, part of the Trail of Tears. Notably, Ralph Waldo Emerson, who would go on to become America's foremost man of letters, wrote Van Buren a letter protesting his treatment of the Cherokee.
The administration also contended with the Seminole Indians, who engaged the army in a prolonged conflict known as the Second Seminole War. Prior to leaving office, Jackson put General Thomas Jesup in command of all military troops in Florida to force Seminole emigration to the West. Forts were established throughout the Indian territory, and mobile columns of soldiers scoured the countryside, and many Seminoles offered to surrender, including Chief Micanopy. The Seminoles slowly gathered for emigration near Tampa, but in June they fled the detention camps, driven off by disease and the presence of slave catchers hoping to capture Black Seminoles.
In December 1837, Jesup began a massive offensive, culminating in the Battle of Lake Okeechobee, and the war entered a new phase of attrition. During this time, the government realized that it would be almost impossible to drive the remaining Seminoles from Florida, so Van Buren sent General Alexander Macomb to negotiate peace with them. It was the only time that an Indian tribe had forced the government to sue for peace. An agreement was reached allowing the Seminoles to remain in southwest Florida, but the peace was shattered in July 1839 and was not restored until 1842, after Van Buren had left office.
Just before leaving office in March 1837, Andrew Jackson extended diplomatic recognition to the Republic of Texas, which had gained de facto independence from Mexico in the Texas Revolution. By suggesting the prospect of quick annexation, Jackson raised the danger of war with Mexico and heightened sectional tensions at home. New England abolitionists charged that there was a "slaveholding conspiracy to acquire Texas", and Daniel Webster eloquently denounced annexation. Many Southern leaders, meanwhile, strongly desired the expansion of slave-holding territory in the United States.
Boldly reversing Jackson's policies, Van Buren sought peace abroad and harmony at home. He proposed a diplomatic solution to a long-standing financial dispute between American citizens and the Mexican government, rejecting Jackson's threat to settle it by force. Likewise, when the Texas minister at Washington, D.C., proposed annexation to the administration in August 1837, he was told that the proposition could not be entertained. Constitutional scruples and fear of war with Mexico were the reasons given for the rejection, but concern that it would precipitate a clash over the extension of slavery undoubtedly influenced Van Buren and continued to be the chief obstacle to annexation. Northern and Southern Democrats followed an unspoken rule: Northerners helped quash anti-slavery proposals and Southerners refrained from agitating for the annexation of Texas. Texas withdrew the annexation offer in 1838.
British subjects in Lower Canada (now Quebec) and Upper Canada (now Ontario) rose in rebellion in 1837 and 1838, protesting their lack of responsible government. While the initial insurrection in Upper Canada ended quickly (following the December 1837 Battle of Montgomery's Tavern), many of the rebels fled across the Niagara River into New York, and Canadian leader William Lyon Mackenzie began recruiting volunteers in Buffalo. Mackenzie declared the establishment of the Republic of Canada and put into motion a plan whereby volunteers would invade Upper Canada from Navy Island on the Canadian side of the Niagara River. Several hundred volunteers traveled to Navy Island in the weeks that followed. They procured the steamboat "Caroline" to deliver supplies to Navy Island from Fort Schlosser. Seeking to deter an imminent invasion, British forces crossed to the American bank of the river in late December 1837, and they burned and sank the "Caroline". In the melee, one American was killed and others were wounded.
Considerable sentiment arose within the United States to declare war, and a British ship was burned in revenge. Van Buren, looking to avoid a war with Great Britain, sent General Winfield Scott to the Canada–United States border with large discretionary powers for its protection and its peace. Scott impressed upon American citizens the need for a peaceful resolution to the crisis, and made it clear that the U.S. government would not support adventuresome Americans attacking the British. Also, in early January 1838, the president proclaimed U.S. neutrality in the Canadian independence issue, a declaration which Congress endorsed by passing a neutrality law designed to discourage the participation of American citizens in foreign conflicts.
During the Canadian rebellions, Charles Duncombe and Robert Nelson helped foment a largely American militia, the Hunters' Lodge/Frères chasseurs. This militia carried out several attacks in Upper Canada between December 1837 and December 1838, collectively known as the Patriot War. The administration followed through on its enforcement of the Neutrality Act, encouraged the prosecution of filibusters, and actively deterred U.S. citizens from subversive activities abroad. In the long term, Van Buren's opposition to the Patriot War contributed to the construction of healthy Anglo-American and Canada–United States relations in the 20th century; it also led, more immediately, to a backlash among citizens regarding the seeming overreach of federal authority, which hurt congressional Democrats in the 1838 midterm elections.
A new crisis surfaced in late 1838, in the disputed territory on the Maine–New Brunswick frontier, where Americans were settling on long-disputed land claimed by the United States and Great Britain. Jackson had been willing to drop American claims to the region in return for other concessions, but Maine was unwilling to drop its claims to the disputed territory. The British considered possession of the area vital to the defense of Canada. Both American and New Brunswick lumberjacks cut timber in the disputed territory during the winter of 1838–1839. On December 29, New Brunswick lumbermen were spotted cutting down trees on an American estate near the Aroostook River.
After American woodcutters rushed to stand guard, a shouting match, known as the Battle of Caribou, ensued. Tensions quickly boiled over into a near war with both Maine and New Brunswick arresting each other's citizens. The crisis seemed ready to turn into an armed conflict. British troops began to gather along the Saint John River. Governor John Fairfield mobilized the state militia to confront the British in the disputed territory and several forts were constructed. The American press clamored for war; "Maine and her soil, or BLOOD!" screamed one editorial. "Let the sword be drawn and the scabbard thrown away!" In June, Congress authorized 50,000 troops and a $10 million budget in the event foreign military troops crossed into United States territory.
Van Buren was unwilling to go to war over the disputed territory, though he assured Maine that he would respond to any attacks by the British. To settle the crisis, Van Buren met with the British minister to the United States, and Van Buren and the minister agreed to resolve the border issue diplomatically. Van Buren also sent General Scott to the northern border area, both to show military resolve, and more importantly, to lower the tensions. Scott successfully convinced all sides to submit the border issue to arbitration. The border dispute was put to rest a few years later, with the signing of the 1842 Webster–Ashburton Treaty.
The "Amistad" case was a freedom suit that involved international issues and parties, as well as United States law, resulting from the rebellion of Africans on board the Spanish schooner "La Amistad" in 1839. Van Buren viewed abolitionism as the greatest threat to the nation's unity, and he resisted the slightest interference with slavery in the states where it existed. His administration supported the Spanish government's demand that the ship and its cargo (including the Africans) be turned over to them. A federal district court judge ruled that the Africans were legally free and should be transported home, but Van Buren's administration appealed the case to the Supreme Court.
In February 1840, former president John Quincy Adams argued passionately for the Africans' right to freedom, and Attorney General Henry D. Gilpin presented the government's case. In March 1841, the Supreme Court issued its final verdict: the "Amistad" Africans were free people and should be allowed to return home. The unique nature of the case heightened public interest in the saga, including the participation of former president Adams, Africans testifying in federal court, and their representation by prominent lawyers. The Amistad case drew attention to the personal tragedies of slavery and attracted new support for the growing abolition movement in the North. It also transformed the courts into the principal forum for a national debate on the legal foundations of slavery.
Van Buren appointed two Associate Justices to the Supreme Court: John McKinley, confirmed September 25, 1837, and Peter Vivian Daniel, confirmed March 2, 1841. He also appointed eight other federal judges, all to United States district courts.
For the first half of his presidency, Van Buren, who had been a widower for many years, did not have a specific person fill the role of White House hostess at administration social events, but tried to assume such duties himself. When his eldest son Abraham Van Buren married Angelica Singleton in 1838, he quickly acted to install his daughter-in-law as his hostess. She solicited the advice of her distant relative, Dolley Madison, who had moved back to Washington after her husband's death, and soon the president's parties livened up. After the 1839 New Year's Eve reception, the "Boston Post" raved: "[Angelica Van Buren is a] lady of rare accomplishments, very modest yet perfectly easy and graceful in her manners and free and vivacious in her conversation ... universally admired."
As the nation endured a deep economic depression, Angelica Van Buren's receiving style at receptions was influenced by her heavy reading on European court life (and her naive delight in being received as the "Queen of the United States" when she visited the royal courts of England and France after her marriage). Newspaper coverage of this, and the claim that she intended to re-landscape the White House grounds to resemble the royal gardens of Europe, was used in a political attack on her father-in-law by a Pennsylvania Whig Congressman Charles Ogle. He referred obliquely to her as part of the presidential "household" in his famous Gold Spoon Oration. The attack was delivered in Congress and the depiction of the president as living a royal lifestyle was a primary factor in his defeat for re-election.
Van Buren easily won renomination for a second term at the 1840 Democratic National Convention, but he and his party faced a difficult election in 1840. Van Buren's presidency had been a difficult affair, with the U.S. economy mired in a severe downturn, and other divisive issues, such as slavery, western expansion, and tensions with Great Britain, providing opportunities for Van Buren's political opponents—including some of his fellow Democrats—to criticize his actions. Although Van Buren's renomination was never in doubt, Democratic strategists began to question the wisdom of keeping Johnson on the ticket. Even former president Jackson conceded that Johnson was a liability and insisted on former House Speaker James K. Polk of Tennessee as Van Buren's new running mate. Van Buren was reluctant to drop Johnson, who was popular with workers and radicals in the North and added military experience to the ticket, which might prove important against likely Whig nominee William Henry Harrison. Rather than re-nominating Johnson, the Democratic convention decided to allow state Democratic Party leaders to select the vice-presidential candidates for their states.
Van Buren hoped that the Whigs would nominate Clay for president, which would allow Van Buren to cast the 1840 campaign as a clash between Van Buren's Independent Treasury system and Clay's support for a national bank. However, rather than nominating longtime party spokesmen like Clay and Daniel Webster, the 1839 Whig National Convention nominated Harrison, who had served in various governmental positions during his career and had earned fame for his military leadership in the Battle of Tippecanoe and the War of 1812. Whig leaders like William Seward and Thaddeus Stevens believed that Harrison's war record would effectively counter the popular appeals of the Democratic Party. For vice president, the Whigs nominated former Senator John Tyler of Virginia. Clay was deeply disappointed by his defeat at the convention, but he nonetheless threw his support behind Harrison.
Whigs presented Harrison as the antithesis of the president, whom they derided as ineffective, corrupt, and effete. Whigs also depicted Van Buren as an aristocrat living in high style in the White House, while they used images of Harrison in a log cabin sipping cider to convince voters that he was a man of the people. They threw such jabs as "Van, Van, is a used-up man" and "Martin Van Ruin" and ridiculed him in newspapers and cartoons. Issues of policy were not absent from the campaign; the Whigs derided the alleged executive overreaches of Jackson and Van Buren, while also calling for a national bank and higher tariffs. Democrats attempted to campaign on the Independent Treasury system, but the onset of deflation undercut these arguments. The enthusiasm for "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too", coupled with the country's severe economic crisis, made it impossible for Van Buren to win a second term. Harrison won by a popular vote of 1,275,612 to 1,130,033, and an electoral vote margin of 234 to 60. An astonishing 80% of eligible voters went to the polls on election day. Van Buren actually won more votes than he had in 1836, but the Whig success in attracting new voters more than canceled out Democratic gains. Additionally, Whigs won majorities for the first time in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
On the expiration of his term, Van Buren returned to his estate of Lindenwald in Kinderhook. He continued to closely watch political developments, including the battle between Clay and President Tyler, who took office after Harrison's death in April 1841. Though undecided on another presidential run, Van Buren made several moves calculated to maintain his support, including a trip to the South and West during which he met with Jackson, former Speaker of the House James K. Polk, and others. President Tyler, James Buchanan, Levi Woodbury, and others loomed as potential challengers for the 1844 Democratic nomination, but it was Calhoun who posed the most formidable obstacle.
Van Buren remained silent on major public issues like the debate over the Tariff of 1842, hoping to arrange for the appearance of a draft movement for his presidential candidacy. President John Tyler made annexation of Texas his chief foreign policy goal, and many Democrats, particularly in the South, were anxious to quickly complete the annexation of Texas. After an explosion on the killed Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur in February 1844, Tyler brought Calhoun into his cabinet to direct foreign affairs. Like Tyler, Calhoun pursued the annexation of Texas to upend the presidential race and to extend slavery into new territories.
Shortly after taking office, Secretary of State Calhoun negotiated an annexation treaty between the United States and Texas. Van Buren had hoped he would not have to take a public stand on annexation, but as the Texas question came to dominate U.S. politics, he decided to make his views on the issue public. Though he believed that his public acceptance of annexation would likely help him win the 1844 Democratic nomination, Van Buren thought that annexation would inevitably lead to an unjust war with Mexico. In a public letter published shortly after Henry Clay also announced his opposition to the annexation treaty, Van Buren articulated his views on the Texas question.
Van Buren's opposition to immediate annexation cost him the support of many pro-slavery Democrats. In the weeks before the 1844 Democratic National Convention, Van Buren's supporters anticipated that he would win a majority of the delegates on the first presidential ballot, but would not be able to win the support of the required two-thirds of delegates. Van Buren's supporters attempted to prevent the adoption of the two-thirds rule, but several Northern delegates joined with Southern delegates in implementing the two-thirds rule for the 1844 convention. Van Buren won 146 of the 266 votes on the first presidential ballot, with only 12 of his votes coming from Southern states.
Senator Lewis Cass won much of the remaining vote, and he gradually picked up support on subsequent ballots until the convention adjourned for the day. When the convention reconvened and held another ballot, James K. Polk, who shared many of Van Buren's views but favored immediate annexation, won 44 votes. On the ninth and final ballot of the convention, Van Buren's supporters withdrew the former president's name from consideration, and Polk won the Democratic presidential nomination. Although angered that his opponents had denied him in the nomination, Van Buren endorsed Polk in the interest of party unity. He also convinced Silas Wright to run for Governor of New York so that the popular Wright could help boost Polk in the state. Wright narrowly defeated Whig nominee Millard Fillmore in the 1844 gubernatorial election, and Wright's victory in the state helped Polk narrowly defeat Henry Clay in the 1844 presidential election.
After taking office, Polk used George Bancroft as an intermediary to offer Van Buren the ambassadorship to London. Van Buren declined, partly because he was upset with Polk over the treatment the Van Buren delegates had received at the 1844 convention, and partly because he was content in his retirement. Polk also consulted Van Buren in the formation of his cabinet, but offended Van Buren by offering to appoint a New Yorker only to the lesser post of Secretary of War, rather than as Secretary of State or Secretary of the Treasury. Other patronage decisions also angered Van Buren and Wright, and they became permanently alienated from the Polk administration.
Though he had previously helped maintain a balance between the Barnburners and Hunkers, the two factions of the New York Democratic Party, Van Buren moved closer to the Barnburners after the 1844 Democratic National Convention. The split in the state party worsened during the Polk's presidency, as his administration lavished patronage on the Hunkers. In his retirement, Van Buren also grew increasingly opposed to slavery.
As the Mexican–American War brought the debate over slavery in the territories to the forefront of American politics, Van Buren published an anti-slavery manifesto. In it, he refuted the notion that Congress did not have the power to regulate slavery in the territories, and argued the Founding Fathers had favored the eventual abolition of slavery. The document, which became known as the "Barnburner Manifesto," was edited at Van Buren's request by John Van Buren and Samuel Tilden, both of whom were leaders of the Barnburner faction. After the publication of the Barnburner Manifesto, many Barnburners urged the former president to seek his old office in the 1848 presidential election. The 1848 Democratic National Convention seated competing Barnburner and Hunker delegations from New York, but the Barnburners walked out of the convention when Lewis Cass, who opposed congressional regulation of slavery in the territories, was nominated on the fourth ballot.
In response to the nomination of Cass, the Barnburners began to organize as a third party. At a convention held in June 1848, in Utica, New York, the Barnburners nominated Van Buren for president. Though reluctant to bolt from the Democratic Party, Van Buren accepted the nomination to show the power of the anti-slavery movement, help defeat Cass, and weaken the Hunkers. At a convention held in Buffalo, New York in August 1848, a group of anti-slavery Democrats, Whigs, and members of the abolitionist Liberty Party met in the first national convention of what became known as the Free Soil Party.
The convention unanimously nominated Van Buren, and chose Charles Francis Adams as Van Buren's running mate. In a public message accepting the nomination, Van Buren gave his full support for the Wilmot Proviso, a proposed law that would ban slavery in all territories acquired from Mexico in the Mexican–American War. Van Buren won no electoral votes, but finished second to Whig nominee Zachary Taylor in New York, taking enough votes from Cass to give the state—and perhaps the election—to Taylor. Nationwide, Van Buren won 10.1% of the popular vote, the strongest showing by a third party presidential nominee up to that point in U.S. history.
Van Buren never sought public office again after the 1848 election, but he continued to closely follow national politics. He was deeply troubled by the stirrings of secessionism in the South and welcomed the Compromise of 1850 as a necessary conciliatory measure despite his opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Van Buren also worked on a history of American political parties and embarked on a tour of Europe, becoming the first former American head of state to visit Britain. Though still concerned about slavery, Van Buren and his followers returned to the Democratic fold, partly out of the fear that a continuing Democratic split would help the Whig Party. He also attempted to reconcile the Barnburners and the Hunkers, with mixed results.
Van Buren supported Franklin Pierce for president in 1852, James Buchanan in 1856, and Stephen A. Douglas in 1860. Van Buren viewed the fledgling Know Nothing movement with contempt and felt that the anti-slavery Republican Party exacerbated sectional tensions. He considered Chief Justice Roger Taney's decision in the 1857 case of "Dred Scott v. Sandford" to be a "grievous mistake" since it overturned the Missouri Compromise. He believed that the Buchanan administration handled the issue of Bleeding Kansas poorly, and saw the Lecompton Constitution as a sop to Southern extremists.
After the election of Abraham Lincoln and the secession of several Southern states in 1860, Van Buren unsuccessfully sought to call a constitutional convention. In April 1861, former president Pierce wrote to the other living former presidents and asked them to consider meeting to use their stature and influence to propose a negotiated end to the war. Pierce asked Van Buren to use his role as the senior living ex-president to issue a formal call. Van Buren's reply suggested that Buchanan should be the one to call the meeting, since he was the former president who had served most recently, or that Pierce should issue the call himself if he strongly believed in the merit of his proposal. Neither Buchanan nor Pierce was willing to make Pierce's proposal public, and nothing more resulted from it. Once the American Civil War began, Van Buren made public his support for the Union.
Van Buren's health began to fail later in 1861, and he was bedridden with pneumonia during the fall and winter of 1861–1862. He died of bronchial asthma and heart failure at his Lindenwald estate at 2:00 a.m. on July 24, 1862, at 79. He is buried in the Kinderhook Reformed Dutch Church Cemetery, as are his wife Hannah, his parents, and his son Martin Van Buren Jr.
Van Buren outlived all four of his immediate successors: Harrison, Tyler, Polk, and Taylor.
Van Buren's most lasting achievement was as a political organizer who built the Democratic Party and guided it to dominance in the Second Party System, and historians have come to regard Van Buren as integral to the development of the American political system. According to historian Robert Remini:
However, his presidency is considered to be average, at best, by historians. He was blamed for the economic troubles and was defeated for reelection. His tenure was dominated by the economic disaster of the Panic of 1837, and historians have split on the adequacy of the Independent Treasury as a response to that issue. Several writers have portrayed Van Buren as among the nation's most obscure presidents. As noted in a 2014 "Time" magazine article on the "Top 10 Forgettable Presidents":
Van Buren's home in Kinderhook, New York, which he called Lindenwald, is now the Martin Van Buren National Historic Site. Counties are named for Van Buren in Michigan, Iowa, Arkansas, and Tennessee. Mount Van Buren, , three state parks and numerous towns were named after him.
During the 1988 presidential campaign, George H. W. Bush, a Yale University graduate and member of the Skull and Bones secret society, was attempting to become the first incumbent vice president to win election to the presidency since Van Buren. In the comic strip "Doonesbury", artist Garry Trudeau depicted members of Skull and Bones as attempting to rob Van Buren's grave, apparently intending to use the relics in a ritual that would aid Bush in the election.
Van Buren is portrayed by Nigel Hawthorne in the 1997 film "Amistad". The film depicts the legal battle surrounding the status of slaves who in 1839 rebelled against their transporters on "La Amistad" slave ship. On the television show "Seinfeld", the episode "The Van Buren Boys" is about a fictional street gang that admires Van Buren and bases its rituals and symbols on him, including the hand sign of eight fingers pointing up.
Also, in an episode of "The Monkees", "Dance, Monkee, Dance", a dance instruction studio offers free lessons to anyone who can answer the question, "Who was the eighth president of the United States?" Martin Van Buren appears at the studio to claim the prize.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19763
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Melbourne Cricket Ground
The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known simply as "The G", is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hemisphere, the 11th largest globally, and the second largest cricket ground by capacity after Motera Stadium. The MCG is within walking distance of the city centre and is served by Richmond and Jolimont railway stations, as well as the route 70 tram. It is adjacent to Melbourne Park and is part of the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Precinct.
Since it was built in 1853, the MCG has undergone numerous renovations. It served as the centrepiece stadium of the 1956 Summer Olympics, the 2006 Commonwealth Games and two Cricket World Cups: 1992 and 2015. Noted for its role in the development of international cricket, the MCG hosted both the first Test match and the first One Day International, played between Australia and England in 1877 and 1971 respectively. It has also maintained strong ties with Australian rules football since its codification in 1859, and has become the principal venue for Australian Football League (AFL) matches, including the AFL Grand Final, the world's highest attended league championship event.
Home to the National Sports Museum, the MCG has hosted other major sporting events, including international rules football matches between Australia and Ireland, international rugby union matches, State of Origin (rugby league) games, and FIFA World Cup qualifiers. Concerts and other cultural events are also held at the venue with the record attendance standing at 143,750 for a Billy Graham evangelistic crusade in 1959. Grandstand redevelopments and occupational health and safety legislation have limited the maximum seating capacity to approximately 95,000 with an additional 5,000 standing room capacity, bringing the total capacity to 100,024.
The MCG is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register and was included on the Australian National Heritage List in 2005. Journalist Greg Baum called it "a shrine, a citadel, a landmark, a totem" that "symbolises Melbourne to the world".
Founded in November 1838 the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) selected the current MCG site in 1853 after previously playing at several grounds around Melbourne. The club's first game was against a military team at the Old Mint site, at the corner of William and Latrobe Streets. Burial Hill (now Flagstaff Gardens) became its home ground in January 1839, but the area was already set aside for Botanical Gardens and the club was moved on in October 1846, to an area on the south bank of the Yarra about where the Herald and Weekly Times building is today. The area was subject to flooding, forcing the club to move again, this time to a ground in South Melbourne.
It was not long before the club was forced out again, this time because of the expansion of the railway. The South Melbourne ground was in the path of Victoria's first steam railway line from Melbourne to Sandridge (now Port Melbourne). Governor La Trobe offered the MCC a choice of three sites; an area adjacent to the existing ground, a site at the junction of Flinders and Spring Streets or a ten-acre (about 4 hectares) section of the Government Paddock at Richmond next to Richmond Park.
This last option, which is now Yarra Park, had been used by Aborigines until 1835. Between 1835 and the early 1860s it was known as the Government or Police Paddock and served as a large agistment area for the horses of the Mounted Police, Border Police and Native Police. The north-eastern section also housed the main barracks for the Mounted Police in the Port Phillip district. In 1850 it was part of a stretch set aside for public recreation extending from Governor La Trobe's Jolimont Estate to the Yarra River. By 1853 it had become a busy promenade for Melbourne residents.
An MCC sub-committee chose the Richmond Park option because it was level enough for cricket but sloped enough to prevent inundation. That ground was located where the Richmond, or outer, end of the current MCG is now.
At the same time the Richmond Cricket Club was given occupancy rights to six acres (2.4 hectares) for another cricket ground on the eastern side of the Government Paddock.
At the time of the land grant the Government stipulated that the ground was to be used for cricket and cricket only. This condition remained until 1933 when the State Government allowed the MCG's uses to be broadened to include other purposes when not being used for cricket.
In 1863 a corridor of land running diagonally across Yarra Park was granted to the Hobson's Bay Railway and divided Yarra Park from the river. The Mounted Police barracks were operational until the 1880s when it was subdivided into the current residential precinct bordered by Vale Street. The area closest to the river was also developed for sporting purposes in later years including Olympic venues in 1956.
The first grandstand at the MCG was the original wooden members' stand built in 1854, while the first public grandstand was a 200-metre long 6000-seat temporary structure built in 1861. Another grandstand seating 2000, facing one way to the cricket ground and the other way to the park where football was played, was built in 1876 for the 1877 visit of James Lillywhite's English cricket team. It was during this tour that the MCG hosted the world's first Test match.
In 1881 the original members' stand was sold to the Richmond Cricket Club for £55. A new brick stand, considered at the time to be the world's finest cricket facility, was built in its place. The foundation stone was laid by Prince George of Wales and Prince Albert Victor on 4 July and the stand opened in December that year. It was also in 1881 that a telephone was installed at the ground, and the wickets and goal posts were changed from an east-west orientation to north-south. In 1882 a scoreboard was built which showed details of the batsman's name and how he was dismissed.
When the Lillywhite tour stand burnt down in 1884 it was replaced by a new stand which seated 450 members and 4500 public. In 1897, second-storey wings were added to 'The Grandstand', as it was known, increasing capacity to 9,000. In 1900 it was lit with electric light.
More stands were built in the early 20th century. An open wooden stand was on the south side of the ground in 1904 and the 2084-seat Grey Smith Stand (known as the New Stand until 1912) was erected for members in 1906. The 4000-seat Harrison Stand on the ground's southern side was built in 1908 followed by the 8000-seat Wardill Stand in 1912. In the 15 years after 1897 the stand capacity at the ground increased to nearly 20,000.
In 1927 the second brick members' stand was replaced at a cost of £60,000. The Harrison and Wardill Stands were demolished in 1936 to make way for the Southern Stand which was completed in 1937. The Southern Stand seated 18,200 under cover and 13,000 in the open and was the main public area of the MCG. The maximum capacity of the ground under this configuration, as advised by the Health Department, was 84,000 seated and 94,000 standing.
The Northern Stand, also known as the Olympic Stand, was built to replace the old Grandstand for the 1956 Olympic Games. By Health Department regulations, this was to increase the stadium's capacity to 120,000; although this was revised down after the 1956 VFL Grand Final, which could not comfortably accommodate its crowd of 115,802. Ten years later, the Grey Smith Stand and the open concrete stand next to it were replaced by the Western Stand; the Duke of Edinburgh laid a foundation stone for the Western Stand on 3 March 1967, and it was completed in 1968; in 1986, it was renamed the Ponsford Stand in honour of Victorian batsman Bill Ponsford. This was the stadium's highest capacity configuration, and the all-time record crowd for a sporting event at the venue of 121,696 was set under this configuration in the 1970 VFL Grand Final.
The MCG was the home of Australia's first full colour video scoreboard, which replaced the old scoreboard in 1982, located on Level 4 of the Western Stand, which notably caught fire in 1999 and was replaced in 2000. A second video screen added in 1994 almost directly opposite, on Level 4 of the Olympic stand. In 1985, light towers were installed at the ground, allowing for night football and day-night cricket games.
In 1988 inspections of the old Southern Stand found concrete cancer and provided the opportunity to replace the increasingly run-down 50-year-old facility. The projected cost of $100 million was outside what the Melbourne Cricket Club could afford so the Victorian Football League took the opportunity to part fund the project in return for a 30-year deal to share the ground. The new Great Southern Stand was completed in 1992, in time for the 1992 Cricket World Cup, at a final cost of $150 million.
The 1928 Members' stand, the 1956 Olympic stand and the 1968 Ponsford stand were demolished one by one between late 2003 to 2005 and replaced with a new structure in time for the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Despite now standing as a single unbroken stand, the individual sections retain the names of Ponsford, Olympic and Members Stands. The redevelopment cost exceeded 400 million and pushed the ground's capacity to just above 100,000. Since redevelopment, the highest attendance was the 2018 Grand Final of the AFL with 100,022, followed by 100,021 in the 2017 Grand Final.
From 2011 until 2013, the Victorian Government and the Melbourne Cricket Club funded a $55 million refurbishment of the facilities of Great Southern Stand, including renovations to entrance gates and ticket outlets, food and beverage outlets, "etc.", without significantly modifying the stand. New scoreboards, more than twice the size of the original ones, were installed in the same positions in late 2013.
From November 2019 until February 2020 all the playing field lights, including those in the light towers, were replaced with LED sports lighting with the lighting under the roof and in two of the light towers completed in time for the Boxing Day Test against New Zealand.
The first cricket match at the venue was played on 30 September 1854, while the first inter-colonial cricket match to be played at the MCG was between Victoria and New South Wales in March 1856. Victoria had played Tasmania (then known as Van Diemen's Land) as early as 1851 but the Victorians had included two professionals in the 1853 team upsetting the Tasmanians and causing a cooling of relations between the two colonies. To replace the disgruntled Tasmanians the Melbourne Cricket Club issued a challenge to play any team in the colonies for £1000. Sydney publican William Tunks accepted the challenge on behalf of New South Wales although the Victorians were criticised for playing for money. Ethics aside, New South Wales could not afford the £1000 and only managed to travel to Melbourne after half the team's travel cost of £181 was put up by Sydney barrister Richard Driver.
The game eventually got under way on 26 March 1856. The Victorians, stung by criticism over the £1000 stake, argued over just about everything; the toss, who should bat first, whether different pitches should be used for the different innings and even what the umpires should wear.
Victoria won the toss but New South Wales captain George Gilbert successfully argued that the visiting team should decide who bats first. The MCG was a grassless desert and Gilbert, considering players fielded without boots, promptly sent Victoria into bat. Needing only 16 to win in the final innings, New South Wales collapsed to be 5 for 5 before Gilbert's batting saved the game and the visitors won by three wickets.
In subsequent years conditions at the MCG improved but the ever-ambitious Melburnians were always on the lookout for more than the usual diet of club and inter-colonial games. In 1861, Felix William Spiers and Christopher Pond, the proprietors of the Cafe de Paris in Bourke Street and caterers to the MCC, sent their agent, W.B. Mallam, to England to arrange for a cricket team to visit Australia.
Mallam found a team and, captained by Heathfield Stephenson, it arrived in Australia on Christmas Eve 1861 to be met by a crowd of more than 3000 people. The team was taken on a parade through the streets wearing white-trimmed hats with blue ribbons given to them for the occasion. Wherever they went they were mobbed and cheered by crowds to the point where the tour sponsors had to take them out of Melbourne so that they could train undisturbed.
Their first game was at the MCG on New Year's Day 1862, against a Victorian XVIII. The Englishmen also wore coloured sashes around their waists to identify each player and were presented with hats to shade them from the sun. Some estimates put the crowd at the MCG that day at 25,000. It must have been quite a picture with a new 6000 seat grandstand, coloured marquees ringing the ground and a carnival outside. Stephenson said that the ground was better than any in England. The Victorians however, were no match for the English at cricket and the visitors won by an innings and 96 runs.
Over the four days of the 'test' more than 45,000 people attended and the profits for Speirs and Pond from this game alone was enough to fund the whole tour. At that time it was the largest number of people to ever watch a cricket match anywhere in the world. Local cricket authorities went out of their way to cater for the needs of the team and the sponsors. They provided grounds and sponsors booths without charge and let the sponsors keep the gate takings. The sponsors however, were not so generous in return. They quibbled with the Melbourne Cricket Club about paying £175 for damages to the MCG despite a prior arrangement to do so.
The last match of the tour was against a Victorian XXII at the MCG after which the English team planted an elm tree outside the ground.
Following the success of this tour, a number of other English teams also visited in subsequent years. George Parr's side came out in 1863–64 and there were two tours by sides led by W.G. Grace. The fourth tour was led by James Lillywhite.
On Boxing Day 1866 an Indigenous Australian cricket team played at the MCG with 11,000 spectators against an MCC team. A few players in that match were in a later team that toured England in 1868. Some also played in three other matches at the ground before 1869.
Up until the fourth tour in 1877, led by Lillywhite, touring teams had played first-class games against the individual colonial sides, but Lillywhite felt that his side had done well enough against New South Wales to warrant a game against an All Australian team.
When Lillywhite headed off to New Zealand he left Melbourne cricketer John Conway to arrange the match for their return. Conway ignored the cricket associations in each colony and selected his own Australian team, negotiating directly with the players. Not only was the team he selected of doubtful representation but it was also probably not the strongest available as some players had declined to take part for various reasons. Demon bowler Fred Spofforth refused to play because wicket-keeper Billy Murdoch was not selected. Paceman Frank Allan was at Warnambool Agricultural Show and Australia's best all-rounder Edwin Evans could not get away from work. In the end only five Australian-born players were selected.
The same could be said for Lillywhite's team which, being selected from only four counties, meant that some of England's best players did not take part. In addition, the team had a rough voyage back across the Tasman Sea and many members had been seasick. The game was due to be played on 15 March, the day after their arrival, but most had not yet fully recovered. On top of that, wicket-keeper Ted Pooley was still in a New Zealand prison after a brawl in a Christchurch pub.
England was nonetheless favourite to win the game and the first ever Test match began with a crowd of only 1000 watching. The Australians elected Dave Gregory from New South Wales as Australia's first ever captain and on winning the toss he decided to bat.
Charles Bannerman scored an unbeaten 165 before retiring hurt. Sydney Cricket Ground curator, Ned Gregory, playing in his one and only Test for Australia, scored Test cricket's first duck. Australia racked up 245 and 104 while England scored 196 and 108 giving Australia victory by 45 runs. The win hinged on Bannerman's century and a superb bowling performance by Tom Kendall who took 7 for 55 in England's second innings.
A fortnight later there was a return game, although it was really more of a benefit for the English team. Australia included Spofforth, Murdoch and T.J.D. Cooper in the side but this time the honours went to England who won by four wickets.
Two years later Lord Harris brought another England team out and during England's first innings in the Test at the MCG, Fred Spofforth took the first hat-trick in Test cricket. He bagged two hauls of 6 for 48 and 7 for 62 in Australia's ten wicket win.
Through most of the 20th century, the Melbourne Cricket Ground was one of the two major Test venues in Australia (along with the Sydney Cricket Ground), and it would host one or two Tests in each summer in which Tests were played; since 1982, the Melbourne Cricket Ground has hosted one Test match each summer. Until 1979, the ground almost always hosted its match or one of its matches over the New Year, with the first day's play falling somewhere between 29 December and 1 January; in most years since 1980 and every year since 1995, its test has begun on Boxing Day, and it is now a standard fixture in the Australian cricket calendar and is known as the Boxing Day Test. The venue also hosts one-day international matches each year, and Twenty20 international matches most years. No other venue in Melbourne has hosted a Test, and Docklands Stadium is the only other venue to have hosted a limited-overs international.
The Victorian first-class team plays Sheffield Shield cricket at the venue during the season. Prior to Test cricket being played on Boxing Day, it was a long-standing tradition for Victoria to host New South Wales in a first-class match on Boxing Day. Victoria also played its limited overs matches at the ground. Since the introduction of the domestic Twenty20 Big Bash League (BBL) in 2011, the Melbourne Stars club has played its home matches at the ground. It is also the home ground of the Melbourne Stars Women team, which plays in the Women's Big Bash League (WBBL).
By the 1980s, the integral MCG pitch – grown from Merri Creek black soil – was considered the worst in Australia, in some matches exhibiting wildly inconsistent bounce which could see balls pass through as grubbers or rear dangerously high – a phenomenon which was put down to damage caused by footballers in winter and increased use for cricket during the summers of the 1970s. The integral pitch has since been removed and drop-in pitches have been used since 1996, generally offering consistent bounce and a fair balance between bat and ball.
The highest first class team score in history was posted at the MCG in the Boxing Day match against New South Wales in 1926–27. Victoria scored 1107 in two days, with Bill Ponsford scoring 352 and Jack Ryder scoring 295.
One of the most sensational incidents in Test cricket occurred at the MCG during the Melbourne test of the 1954–55 England tour of Australia. Big cracks had appeared in the pitch during a very hot Saturday's play and on the rest day Sunday, groundsman Jack House watered the pitch to close them up. This was illegal and the story was leaked by "The Age" newspaper. The teams agreed to finish the match and England won by 128 runs after Frank Tyson took 7 for 27 in the final innings.
An incident in the second Test of the 1960–61 series involved the West Indies player Joe Solomon being given out after his hat fell on the stumps after being bowled at by Richie Benaud. The crowd sided with the West Indies over the Australians.
Not only was the first Test match played at the MCG, the first One Day International match was also played there, on 5 January 1971, between Australia and England. The match was played on what was originally scheduled to have been the fifth day of a Test match, but the Test was abandoned after the first three days were washed out. Australia won the 40-over match by 5 wickets. The next ODI was played in August 1972, some 19 months later.
In March 1977, the Australian Cricket Board assembled 218 of the surviving 224 Australia-England players for a Test match to celebrate 100 years of Test cricket between the two nations. The match was the idea of former Australian bowler and MCC committee member Hans Ebeling who had been responsible for developing the cricket museum at the MCG. The match had everything. England's Derek Randall scored 174, Australia's Rod Marsh also got a century, Lillee took 11 wickets, and David Hookes, in his first test, smacked five fours in a row off England captain Tony Greig's bowling. Rick McCosker who opened for Australia suffered a fractured jaw after being hit by a sharply rising delivery. He left the field but came back in the second innings with his head swathed in bandages. Australia won the match by 45 runs, exactly the same margin as the first Test in 1877.
Another incident occurred on 1 February 1981 at the end of a one-day match between Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand, batting second, needed six runs off the last ball of the day to tie the game. Australian captain, Greg Chappell instructed his brother Trevor, who was bowling the last over, to send the last ball down underarm to prevent the New Zealand batsman, Brian McKechnie, from hitting the ball for six. Although not entirely in the spirit of the game, an underarm delivery was quite legal, so long as the arm was kept straight. The Laws of cricket have since been changed to prevent such a thing happening again. The incident has long been a sore point between Australia and New Zealand.
In February and March 1985 the Benson & Hedges World Championship of Cricket was played at the MCG, a One Day International tournament involving all of the then Test match playing countries to celebrate 150 years of the Australian state of Victoria. Some matches were also played at Sydney Cricket Ground.
The MCG hosted the 1992 Cricket World Cup Final between Pakistan and England with a crowd of more than 87,000. Pakistan won the match after an all-round performance by Wasim Akram who scored 33 runs and picked up 3 crucial wickets to make Pakistan cricket world champions for the first and as yet only time.
During the 1995 Boxing Day Test at the MCG, Australian umpire Darrell Hair called Sri Lankan spin bowler Muttiah Muralitharan for throwing the ball, rather than bowling it, seven times during the match. The other umpires did not call him once and this caused a controversy, although he was later called for throwing by other umpires seven other times in different matches.
The MCG is known for its great atmosphere, much of which is generated in the infamous Bay 13, situated almost directly opposite to the members stand. In the late 1980s, the crowd at Bay 13 would often mimic the warm up stretches performed by Merv Hughes. In a 1999 One-Day International, the behaviour of Bay 13 was so bad that Shane Warne, donning a helmet for protection, had to enter the ground from his dressing rooms and tell the crowd to settle down at the request of opposing England captain Alec Stewart.
The MCG hosted three pool games as part of the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup as well as a quarter-final, and then the final on 29 March. Australia comfortably defeated New Zealand by seven wickets in front of an Australian record cricket crowd of 93,013.
In 2017-18 Ashes series, Alastair Cook scored the highest score by an English batsman and second double century since Wally Hammond at the ground. Steve Smith scored his 4th consecutive century at the ground (2014-2017) in reply, being the only player since Don Bradman (1928–31) to do so. Smith also lasted 1093 days, or scored 455 runs, between two wickets fallen. The match ended in a draw, dashing hopes of Australia achieving the third Ashes sweep in the 21st Century. The wicket used for the Boxing Day test was the first Australian wicket ever to be rated 'poor' by the ICC.
The 2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup Final was held on International Women's Day between Australia and India. Australia won convincingly by 85 runs in front of a record crowd for women's cricket of 86 174.
Despite being called the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the stadium has been and continues to be used much more often for Australian rules football. Spectator numbers for football are larger than for any other sport in Australia, and it makes more money for the MCG than any of the other sports played there.
Although the Melbourne Cricket Club members were instrumental in founding Australian Rules Football, there were understandable concerns in the early days about the damage that might be done to the playing surface if football was allowed to be played at the MCG. Therefore, football games were often played in the parklands next to the cricket ground, and this was the case for the first documented football match to be played at the ground. The match which today is considered to be the first Australian rules football, played between Melbourne Grammar and Scotch College over three Saturdays beginning 7 August 1858 was played in this area.
It wasn't until 1869 that football was played on the MCG proper, a trial game involving a police team. It was not for another ten years, in 1879, after the formation of the Victorian Football Association, that the first official match was played on the MCG and the cricket ground itself became a regular venue for football. Two night matches were played on the ground during the year under the newly invented electric light.
In the early years, the MCG was the home ground of Melbourne Football Club, Australia's oldest club, established in 1858 by the founder of the game itself, Thomas Wills. Melbourne won five premierships during the 1870s using the MCG as its home ground.
The first of nearly 3000 Victorian Football League/Australian Football League games to be played at the MCG was on 15 May 1897, with beating 64 to 19.
Several Australian Football League (AFL) clubs later joined Melbourne in using the MCG as their home ground for matches: (1965), (1985), (1992), (started moving in 1994, became a full-time tenant in 2000) and (2000). Melbourne used the venue as its training base until 1984, before being required to move to preserve the venue's surface when North Melbourne began playing there.
The VFL/AFL grand final has been played at the MCG every season since 1902, except in 1924 when no grand final was held because of the season's round-robin finals format (it hosted three of the six games in the finals series) 1942–1945, when the ground was used by the military during World War II; and in 1991 as the construction of the Great Southern Stand had temporarily reduced the ground's capacity below that of Waverley Park. All three grand final replays have been played at the MCG.
Before the MCG was fully seated, a grand final could draw attendances above 110,000. The record for the highest attendance in the history of the sport was set in the 1970 VFL Grand Final, with 121,696 in attendance.
During the 1950s and 1960s crowds at finals and grand finals regularly approached 100,000, which left the VFL little choice but to stage the finals on this huge ground with its superior spectator-space and facilities. However, in those days each team had its own home-ground and the MCG was the exclusive home ground of the Melbourne "Demons", then enjoying their glory days. They were to win six grand finals there, in 1955, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1960, and 1964; losing only twice, in 1954 and 1958. This home-ground advantage in the most crucial games of the VFL year was criticised by some opposing players and supporters. For instance, the Collingwood Football Club's website records the arguments put forward by Mick Twomey, who played during those years in five Collingwood Grand Final teams: "Mick, like most of his teammates question[sic] Melbourne's dominance at the MCG as it was their exclusive home ground ... Had a Grand Final been played at Victoria Park or any neutral ground the outcomes would have most certainly been vastly different."
The problem was not only the psychological advantage of playing on home ground, but also the different styles of play that the MCG enabled. Its playing area was a very broad oval (relative to the smaller suburban ovals on which many of the home-and-away matches were then played). Hence visiting teams needed to adjust their playing styles and also perhaps their selection of players to its wider spaces. Visiting teams were given the opportunity to train at the MCG, but would lack match-practice on this bigger ground; since under the old Final Four system they would play only one or at most two finals matches (except in the case of a drawn game) before reaching the grand final. The possible unfairness of this was in time reduced, as modern methods of turf management made it possible for several teams to share the MCG—a process whose history is described in the previous section. Even those teams that did not adopt the MCG as their shared home ground, now had the experience of playing fairly regularly upon it. Also, as smaller grounds were withdrawn from use in the VFL (and later AFL) and replaced by new larger shared grounds such as Docklands Stadium, teams became more used to larger playing spaces.
However the fairness of clubs with narrower or less developed home grounds being forced to play finals on the MCG was still a controversial issue as late as 2019. In that year's finals, 's AFL club, whose Kardinia Park Stadium is 31 metres narrower than the MCG (115 metres versus 146 metres), had earned the right to a home-ground qualifying final, but was required instead to accept the MCG as its secondary home ground, and to play there against a club whose sole home ground was the MCG.
Since being fully seated, grand final attendances are typically between 95,000 and 100,000, with the record of 100,022 in the 2018 grand final, followed by 100,021 at the 2017 AFL Grand Final.
In the modern era, most finals games held in Melbourne have been played at the MCG. Under the current contract, 10 finals (excluding the grand final) must be played at the MCG over a five-year period. Under previous contracts, the MCG was entitled to host at least one match in each week of the finals, which on several occasions required non-Victorian clubs to play "home" finals in Victoria. In 2018, the AFL, Victorian Government and Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) announced that the MCG would continue to host the grand final until at least 2057.
All Melbourne-based teams (and most of the time Geelong) play their "home" finals at the MCG unless if four Victorian teams win the right to host a final in the first week of the finals.
For many years the VFL had an uneasy relationship with the MCG trustees and the Melbourne Cricket Club. Both needed the other, but resented the dependence. The VFL made the first move which brought things to a head by beginning the development of VFL Park at Mulgrave in the 1960s as its own home ground and as a potential venue for future grand finals. Then in 1983, president of the VFL, Allen Aylett started to pressure the MCG Trust to give the VFL a greater share of the money it made from using the ground for football.
In March 1983 the MCG trustees met to consider a submission from Aylett. Aylett said he wanted the Melbourne Cricket Club's share of revenue cut from 15 per cent to 10 per cent. He threatened to take the following day's opening game of the season, Collingwood vs Melbourne, away from the MCG. The money was held aside until an agreement could be reached.
Different deals, half deals and possible deals were done over the years, with the Premier of Victoria, John Cain, Jr., even becoming involved. Cain was said to have promised the VFL it could use the MCG for six months of the year and then hand it back to the MCC, but this never eventuated, as the MCG Trust did not approve it. In the mid-1980s, a deal was done where the VFL was given its own members area in the Southern Stand.
Against this background of political manoeuvring, in 1985 became the third club to make the MCG its home ground. In the same year, North played in the first night football match at the MCG for almost 110 years, against Collingwood on 29 March 1985.
In 1986, only a month after Ross Oakley had taken over as VFL Commissioner, VFL executives met with the MCC and took a big step towards resolving their differences. Changes in the personnel at the MCC also helped. In 1983 John Lill was appointed secretary and Don Cordner its president.
Shortly after the Southern Stand opened in 1992, the Australian Football League moved its headquarters into the complex. The AFL assisted with financing the new stand and came to an agreement that ensures at least 45 AFL games are played at the MCG each year, including the Grand Final in September. Another 45 days of cricket are also played there each year and more than 3.5 million spectators come to watch every year.
As of the end of 2011, Matthew Richardson holds the records for having scored the most goals on the MCG and Kevin Bartlett holds the record for playing the most matches. Two players have scored 14 goals for an AFL or VFL game in one match at the MCG, Gary Ablett, Sr. in 1989 and 1993 and John Longmire in 1990.
Before an AFL match between and on 27 August 1999, the city end scoreboard caught on fire due to an electrical fault, causing the start of play to be delayed by half an hour.
During World War II, the government requisitioned the MCG for military use. From 1942 until 1945 it was occupied by (in order): the United States Army Air Forces, the Royal Australian Air Force, the United States Marine Corps and again the RAAF. Over the course of the war, more than 200,000 personnel were barracked at the MCG. From April to October 1942, the US Army's Fifth Air Force occupied the ground, naming it "Camp Murphy", in honor of officer Colonel William Murphy, a senior USAAF officer killed in Java. In 1943 the MCG was home to the legendary First Regiment of the First Division of the United States Marine Corps. The First Marine Division were the heroes of the Guadalcanal campaign and used the "cricket grounds", as the marines referred to it, to rest and recuperate. On 14 March 1943 the marines hosted a giant "get together" of American and Australian troops on the arena.
In 1977, Melbourne Cricket Club president Sir Albert Chadwick and Medal of Honor recipient, Colonel Mitchell Paige, unveiled a commemorative plaque recognizing the Americans' time at the ground.
In episode 3 of the 2010 TV miniseries, "The Pacific", members of the US Marines are shown to be camped in the war-era MCG.
The MCG's most famous moment in history was as the main stadium for the 1956 Olympic Games, hosting the opening and closing ceremonies, track and field events, and the finals in field hockey and soccer. The MCG was only one of seven possible venues, including the Melbourne Showgrounds, for the Games' main arena. The MCG was the Federal Government's preferred venue but there was resistance from the MCC. The inability to decide on the central venue nearly caused the Games to be moved from Melbourne. Prime Minister Robert Menzies recognised the potential embarrassment to Australia if this happened and organised a three-day summit meeting to thrash things out. Attending was Victorian Premier John Cain, Sr., the Prime Minister, deputy opposition leader Arthur Calwell, all State political leaders, civic leaders, Olympic officials and trustees and officials of the MCC. Convening the meeting was no small effort considering the calibre of those attending and that many of the sports officials were only part-time amateurs.
As 22 November, the date of the opening ceremony, drew closer, Melbourne was gripped ever more tightly by Olympic fever. At 3 pm the day before the opening ceremony, people began to line up outside the MCG gates. That night the city was paralysed by a quarter of a million people who had come to celebrate.
The MCG's capacity was increased by the new Olympic (or Northern) Stand, and on the day itself 103,000 people filled the stadium to capacity. A young up and coming distance runner was chosen to carry the Olympic torch into the stadium for the opening ceremony.
Although Ron Clarke had a number of junior world records for distances of 1500 m, one mile (1.6 km) and two miles (3 km), he was relatively unknown in 1956. Perhaps the opportunity to carry the torch inspired him because he went on to have a career of exceptional brilliance and was without doubt the most outstanding runner of his day. At one stage he held the world record for every distance from two miles (3 km) to 20 km. His few failures came in Olympic and Commonwealth Games competition. Although favourite for the gold at Tokyo in 1964 he was placed ninth in the 5,000 metres race and the marathon and third in the 10,000 metres. He lost again in the 1966 Commonwealth Games and in 1968 at altitude in Mexico he collapsed at the end of the 10 km race.
On that famous day in Melbourne in 1956 the torch spluttered and sparked, showering Clarke with hot magnesium, burning holes in his shirt. When he dipped the torch into the cauldron it burst into flame singeing him further. In the centre of the ground, John Landy, the fastest miler in the world, took the Olympic oath and sculler Merv Wood carried the Australian flag.
The Melbourne Games also saw the high point of Australian female sprinting with Betty Cuthbert winning three gold medals at the MCG. She won the 100 m and 200 m and anchored the winning 4 x 100 m team. Born in Merrylands in Sydney's west she was a champion schoolgirl athlete and had already broken the world record for the 200 m just before the 1956 Games. She was to be overshadowed by her Western Suburbs club member, the Marlene Matthews. When they got to the Games, Matthews was the overwhelming favourite especially for the 100 m a distance over which Cuthbert had beaten her just once.
Both Matthews and Cuthbert won their heats with Matthews setting an Olympic record of 11.5 seconds in hers. Cuthbert broke that record in the following heat with a time of 11.4 seconds. The world record of 11.3 was held by another Australian, Shirley Strickland who was eliminated in her heat. In the final Matthews felt she got a bad start and was last at the 50 metre mark. Cuthbert sensed Isabella Daniels from the USA close behind her and pulled out a little extra to win Australia's first gold at the Games in a time of 11.5 seconds, Matthews was third. The result was repeated in the 200 m final. Cuthbert won her second gold breaking Marjorie Jackson's Olympic record. Mathews was third again.
By the time the 1956 Olympics came around, Shirley Strickland was a mother of 31 years of age but managed to defend her 80 m title, which she had won in Helsinki four years before, winning gold and setting a new Olympic record.
The sensational incident of the track events was the non-selection of Marlene Matthews in the 4 x 100 m relay. Matthews trained with the relay team up until the selection was made but Cuthbert, Strickland, Fleur Mellor and Norma Croker were picked for the team. There was outrage at the selection which increased when Matthews went on to run third in both the 100 m and 200 m finals. Personally she was devastated and felt that she had been overlooked for her poor baton change. Strickland was disappointed with the way Matthews was treated and maintained it was an opinion held in New South Wales that she had baton problems. One of the selectors, Doris Magee from NSW, said that selecting Matthews increased the risk of disqualification at the change. But Cuthbert maintained that the selectors made the right choice saying that Fleur Mellor was fresh, a specialist relay runner and was better around the curves than Matthews.
The men did not fare so well. The 4 x 400 m relay team, including later IOC Committee member Kevan Gosper, won silver. Charles Porter also won silver in the high jump. Hec Hogan won bronze in the 100 m to become the first Australian man to win a medal in a sprint since the turn of the century and despite injury John Landy won bronze in the 1500 m. Allan Lawrence won bronze in the 10,000 m event.
Apart from athletics, the stadium was also used for the soccer finals, the hockey finals, the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, and an exhibition game of baseball between the Australian National Team and a US armed services team at which an estimated crowd of 114,000 attended. This was the Guinness World Record for the largest attendance for any baseball game, which stood until a 29 March 2008 exhibition game between the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers at the Los Angeles Coliseum (also a former Olympic venue in 1932 and 1984) drawing 115,300.
The MCG was also used for another demonstration sport, Australian Rules. The Olympics being an amateur competition meant that only amateurs could play in the demonstration game. A combined team of amateurs from the VFL and VFA were selected to play a state team from the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA). The game was played 7 December 1956 with the VAFA side, wearing white jumpers, green collars and the Olympic rings on their chests, winning easily 81 to 55. One of the players chosen for the VFA side was Lindsay Gaze (although he never got off the bench) who would go on to make his mark in another sport, basketball, rather than Australian Rules.
The MCG's link with its Olympic past continues to this day. Within its walls is the IOC-endorsed Australian Gallery of Sport and Olympic Museum.
Forty-four years later at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, the ground hosted several soccer preliminaries, making it one of a few venues ever used for more than one Olympics.
The Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 2006 Commonwealth Games were held at the MCG, as well as athletics events during the games. The games began on 15 March and ended on 26 March.
The seating capacity of the stadium during the games was 80,000. A total of 47 events were contested, of which 24 by male and 23 by female athletes. Furthermore, three men's and three women's disability events were held within the programme. All athletics events took place within the Melbourne Cricket Ground, while the marathon and racewalking events took place on the streets of Melbourne and finished at the main stadium.
The hosts Australia easily won the medals table with 16 golds and 41 medals in total. Jamaica came second with 10 golds and 22 medals, while Kenya and England were the next best performers. A total of eleven Games records were broken over the course of the seven-day competition. Six of the records were broken by Australian athletes.
The first game of Rugby Union to be played on the ground was on Saturday, 29 June 1878, when the Waratah Club of Sydney played Carlton Football Club in a return of the previous year's contests in Sydney where the clubs had competed in both codes of football. The match, watched by a crowd of between 6,000 and 7,000 resulted in a draw; one goal and one try being awarded to each team.
The next Rugby match was held on Wednesday 29 June 1881, when the Wanderers, a team organised under the auspices of the Melbourne Cricket Club, played a team representing a detached Royal Navy squadron then visiting Melbourne. The squadron team won by one goal and one try to nil.
It was not until 19 August 1899 that the MCG was again the venue for a Union match, this time Victoria v the British Lions (as they were later to be called). During the preceding week the Victorians had held several trial and practice matches there, as well as several training sessions, despite which they were defeated
30–0 on the day before a crowd of some 7,000.
Nine years later, on Monday, 10 August 1908, Victoria was again the host, this time to the Australian team en route to Great Britain and soon to be dubbed the First Wallabies. Despite being held on a working day some 1,500 spectators attended to see the visitors win by 26–6.
On Saturday, 6 July 1912 the MCG was the venue, for the only time ever, of a match between two Victorian Rugby Union clubs, Melbourne and East Melbourne, the former winning 9–5 in what was reported to be ‘... one of the finest exhibitions of the Rugby game ever seen in Victoria.' It was played before a large crowd as a curtain raiser to a State Rules match against South Australia.
On Saturday 18 June 1921, in another curtain raiser, this time to a Melbourne-Fitzroy League game, a team representing Victoria was soundly beaten 51–0 by the South African Springboks in front of a crowd of 11,214.
It was nine years later, on Saturday 13 September 1930, that the British Lions returned to play Victoria, again before a crowd of 7,000, this time defeating the home side 41–36, a surprisingly narrow winning margin.
The first post war match at the MCG was on 21 May 1949 when the NZ Maoris outclassed a Southern States side 35–8 before a crowd of close to 10,000. A year later, on 29 July 1950, for the first and only time, Queensland travelled to Victoria to play an interstate match, defeating their hosts 31–12 before a crowd of 7,479.
In the following year the MCG was the venue for a contest between the New Zealand All Blacks and an Australian XV . This was on 30 June 1951 before some 9,000 spectators and resulted in a convincing 56–11 win for the visitors.
Union did not return the MCG until the late 1990s, for several night time Test matches, both Australia v New Zealand All Blacks as part of the Tri Nations Series. The first, on Saturday 26 July 1997, being notable for an attendance of 90,119, the visitors winning 33–18 and the second, on Saturday 11 July 1998, for a decisive victory to Australia of 24–16. Australia and New Zealand met again at the MCG during the 2007 Tri Nations Series on 30 June, the hosts again winning, this time by 20 points to 15 in front of a crowd of 79,322.
Rugby league was first played at the ground on 15 August 1914, with the New South Wales team losing to England 15–21.
The first ever State of Origin match at the MCG (and second in Melbourne) was Game II of the 1994 series, and the attendance of 87,161 set a new record rugby league crowd in Australia. The MCG was also the venue for Game II of the 1995 State of Origin series and drew 52,994, the most of any game that series. The second game of the 1997 State of Origin series, which, due to the Super League war only featured Australian Rugby League-signed players, was played there too, but only attracted 25,105, the lowest in a series that failed to attract over 35,000 to any game.
The Melbourne Storm played two marquee games at the MCG in 2000. This was the first time that they had played outside of their normal home ground of Olympic Park Stadium which held 18,500 people. Their first game was held on 3 March 2000 against the St. George Illawarra Dragons in a rematch of the infamous 1999 NRL Grand Final. Dragons player Anthony Mundine said the Storm were 'not worthy premiers' and they responded by running in 12 tries to two, winning 70–10 in front of 23,239 fans. This was their biggest crowd they had played against until 33,427 turned up to the 2007 Preliminary Final at Docklands Stadium which saw Melbourne defeat the Parramatta Eels 26–10. The record home and away crowd record has also been overhauled, when a match at Docklands in 2010 against St George attracted 25,480 spectators. Their second game attracted only 15,535 spectators and was up against the Cronulla Sharks on 24 June 2000. Once again, the Storm won 22–16.
It was announced in June 2014 that the ground would host its first State of Origin match since 1997. Game II of the 2015 series was played at the venue, with an all-time record State of Origin crowd of 91,513 attending the match. The attendance is 19th on the all time rugby league attendance list and the 4th highest rugby league attendance in Australia.
On 9 February 2006 Victorian premier Steve Bracks and Football Federation Australia chairman Frank Lowy announced that the MCG would host a world class soccer event each year from 2006 until 2009 inclusive.
The agreement sees an annual fixture at the MCG, beginning with a clash between Australia and European champions Greece on 25 May 2006 in front of a sell-out crowd of 95,103, before Australia left to contest in the World Cup finals. Australia beat Greece 1–0. The Socceroos also hosted a match in 2007 against Argentina, losing 1–0, as well as 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification matches in 2009 against Japan, which attracted 81,872 fans as Australia beat Japan 2–1 via 2 Tim Cahill headers after falling behind 1–0 late in the 1st half. In 2010 it was announced that as a warm up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup which the Australians had qualified for, they would play fellow qualified nation New Zealand on 24 May at the MCG.
Other matches played at the MCG include the following:
In 1878 the Melbourne Cricket Club's Lawn Tennis Committee laid an asphalt court at the MCG and Victoria's first game of tennis was played there. A second court of grass was laid in 1879 and the first Victorian Championship played on it in 1880. The first inter-colonial championship was played in 1883 and the first formal inter-state match between NSW and Victoria played in 1884 with Victoria winning.
In 1889 the MCC arranged for tennis to be played at the Warehousemen's Cricket Ground (now known as the Albert Cricket Ground), at Albert Park, rather than at the MCG.
It was at the MCG in 1869 that one of Australia's first bicycle races was held. The event was for velocipedes, crude wooden machines with pedals on the front wheels. In 1898 the Austral Wheel Race was held at the MCG attracting a crowd of 30,000 to see cyclists race for a total of £200 in prize money.
"Last updated: 26 August 2019"
The Tattersall's Parade of the Champions undertaking is a gift to the people of Australia by Tattersall's and is a focal point of the Yarra Park precinct.
The MCG is a magnet for tourists worldwide and the statues reinforce the association between the elite sportsmen and women who have competed here and the stadium that rejoiced in their performances.
In 2010, the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) announced an expansion to the list of sporting statues placed around the MCG precinct in partnership with Australia Post.
The Australia Post Avenue of Legends project aimed to place a minimum of five statues in Yarra Park, extending from the gate 2 MCC members entrance up the avenue towards Wellington Parade. The most recent addition of Kevin Bartlett was unveiled in March 2017.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19765
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Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative passed in 1948 for foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred over $12 billion (equivalent to over $129 billion as of 2020) in economic recovery programs to Western European economies after the end of World War II. Replacing an earlier proposal for a Morgenthau Plan, it operated for four years beginning on April 3, 1948. The goals of the United States were to rebuild war-torn regions, remove trade barriers, modernize industry, improve European prosperity, and prevent the spread of Communism. The Marshall Plan required a reduction of interstate barriers, a dropping of many regulations, and encouraged an increase in productivity, as well as the adoption of modern business procedures.
The Marshall Plan aid was divided amongst the participant states roughly on a per capita basis. A larger amount was given to the major industrial powers, as the prevailing opinion was that their resuscitation was essential for general European revival. Somewhat more aid per capita was also directed towards the Allied nations, with less for those that had been part of the Axis or remained neutral. The largest recipient of Marshall Plan money was the United Kingdom (receiving about 26% of the total), followed by France (18%) and West Germany (11%). Some eighteen European countries received Plan benefits. Although offered participation, the Soviet Union refused Plan benefits, and also blocked benefits to Eastern Bloc countries, such as Hungary and Poland. The United States provided similar aid programs in Asia, but they were not part of the Marshall Plan.
Its role in the rapid recovery has been debated. The Marshall Plan's accounting reflects that aid accounted for about 3% of the combined national income of the recipient countries between 1948 and 1951, which means an increase in GDP growth of less than half a percent.
After World War II, in 1947, industrialist Lewis H. Brown wrote (at the request of General Lucius D. Clay) "A Report on Germany", which served as a detailed recommendation for the reconstruction of post-war Germany, and served as a basis for the Marshall Plan. The initiative was named after United States Secretary of State George Marshall. The plan had bipartisan support in Washington, where the Republicans controlled Congress and the Democrats controlled the White House with Harry S. Truman as President. The Plan was largely the creation of State Department officials, especially William L. Clayton and George F. Kennan, with help from the Brookings Institution, as requested by Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Marshall spoke of an urgent need to help the European recovery in his address at Harvard University in June 1947. The purpose of the Marshall Plan was to aid in the economic recovery of nations after World War II and to reduce the influence of Communist parties within them. To combat the effects of the Marshall Plan, the USSR developed its own economic plan, known as the Molotov Plan, in spite of the fact that large amounts of resources from the Eastern Bloc countries to the USSR were paid as reparations, for countries participating in the Axis Power during the war.
The phrase "equivalent of the Marshall Plan" is often used to describe a proposed large-scale economic rescue program.
In 1951 the Marshall Plan was largely replaced by the Mutual Security Act.
The reconstruction plan, developed at a meeting of the participating European states, was drafted on June 5, 1947. It offered the same aid to the Soviet Union and its allies, but they refused to accept it, as doing so would allow a degree of US control over the communist economies. In fact, the Soviet Union prevented its satellite states (i.e., East Germany, Poland, etc.) from accepting. Secretary Marshall became convinced Stalin had no interest in helping restore economic health in Western Europe.
President Harry Truman signed the Marshall Plan on April 3, 1948, granting $5 billion in aid to 16 European nations. During the four years the plan was in effect, the United States donated $17 billion (equivalent to $ billion in ) in economic and technical assistance to help the recovery of the European countries that joined the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation. The $17 billion was in the context of a US GDP of $258 billion in 1948, and on top of $17 billion in American aid to Europe between the end of the war and the start of the Plan that is counted separately from the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan was replaced by the Mutual Security Plan at the end of 1951; that new plan gave away about $7.5 billion annually until 1961 when it was replaced by another program.
The ERP addressed each of the obstacles to postwar recovery. The plan looked to the future and did not focus on the destruction caused by the war. Much more important were efforts to modernize European industrial and business practices using high-efficiency American models, reducing artificial trade barriers, and instilling a sense of hope and self-reliance.
By 1952, as the funding ended, the economy of every participant state had surpassed pre-war levels; for all Marshall Plan recipients, output in 1951 was at least 35% higher than in 1938. Over the next two decades, Western Europe enjoyed unprecedented growth and prosperity, but economists are not sure what proportion was due directly to the ERP, what proportion indirectly, and how much would have happened without it.
A common American interpretation of the program's role in European recovery was expressed by Paul Hoffman, head of the Economic Cooperation Administration, in 1949, when he told Congress Marshall aid had provided the "critical margin" on which other investment needed for European recovery depended. The Marshall Plan was one of the first elements of European integration, as it erased trade barriers and set up institutions to coordinate the economy on a continental level—that is, it stimulated the total political reconstruction of western Europe.
Belgian economic historian Herman Van der Wee concludes the Marshall Plan was a "great success":
By the end of World War II, much of Europe was devastated. Sustained aerial bombardment during the war had badly damaged most major cities, and industrial facilities were especially hard-hit. The region's trade flows had been thoroughly disrupted; millions were in refugee camps living on aid from the United States, which was provided in the guise of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration and other agencies. The United Nations had been approved by a three-month conference that bookended Victory in Europe. Food shortages were severe, especially in the harsh winter of 1946–47. From July 1945 through June 1946, the United States shipped 16.5 million tons of food, primarily wheat, to Europe and Japan. It amounted to one-sixth of the American food supply and provided 35 trillion calories, enough to provide 400 calories a day for one year to 300 million people.
Especially damaged was transportation infrastructure, as railways, bridges, and docks had been specifically targeted by airstrikes, while much merchant shipping had been sunk. Although most small towns and villages had not suffered as much damage, the destruction of transportation left them economically isolated. None of these problems could be easily remedied, as most nations engaged in the war had exhausted their treasuries in the process.
The only major powers whose infrastructure had not been significantly harmed in World War II were the United States and Canada. They were much more prosperous than before the war but exports were a small factor in their economy. Much of the Marshall Plan aid would be used by the Europeans to buy manufactured goods and raw materials from the United States and Canada.
Along with the UN, many humanist ideas were circulating over the five-year period that ensued its formation. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) date from this time. One of the ideas proposed in 1947 at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment (UNCTE) was the International Trade Organization (ITO). The GATT was first conceived around that time too.
Most of Europe's economies were recovering slowly, as unemployment and food shortages led to strikes and unrest in several nations. Agricultural production was 83% of 1938 levels, industrial production was 88%, and exports 59%. Exceptions were the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and France, where by the end of 1947 production had already been restored to pre-war levels before the Marshall Plan. Italy and Belgium would follow by the end of 1948.
In Germany in 1945–46 housing and food conditions were bad, as the disruption of transport, markets, and finances slowed a return to normality. In the West, bombing had destroyed 5,000,000 houses and apartments, and 12,000,000 refugees from the east had crowded in. Food production was two-thirds of the pre-war level in 1946–48, while normal grain and meat shipments no longer arrived from the East. The drop in food production can be attributed to a drought that killed a major portion of the wheat crop while a severe winter destroyed the majority of the wheat crop the following year. This caused most Europeans to rely on a 1,500 calorie per day diet. Furthermore, the large shipments of food stolen from occupied nations during the war no longer reached Germany. Industrial production fell more than half and reached pre-war levels at the end of 1949.
While Germany struggled to recover from the destruction of the War, the recovery effort began in June 1948, moving on from emergency relief. The currency reform in 1948 was headed by the military government and helped Germany to restore stability by encouraging production. The reform revalued old currency and deposits and introduced new currency. Taxes were also reduced and Germany prepared to remove economic barriers.
During the first three years of occupation of Germany, the UK and US vigorously pursued a military disarmament program in Germany, partly by removal of equipment but mainly through an import embargo on raw materials, part of the Morgenthau Plan approved by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Nicholas Balabkins concludes that "as long as German industrial capacity was kept idle the economic recovery of Europe was delayed." By July 1947 Washington realized that economic recovery in Europe could not go forward without the reconstruction of the German industrial base, deciding that an "orderly, prosperous Europe requires the economic contributions of a stable and productive Germany." In addition, the strength of Moscow-controlled communist parties in France and Italy worried Washington.
In the view of the State Department under President Harry S Truman, the United States needed to adopt a definite position on the world scene or fear losing credibility. The emerging doctrine of containment (as opposed to rollback) argued that the United States needed to substantially aid non-communist countries to stop the spread of Soviet influence. There was also some hope that the Eastern Bloc nations would join the plan, and thus be pulled out of the emerging Soviet bloc, but that did not happen.
In January 1947, Truman appointed retired General George Marshall as Secretary of State. In July 1947 Marshall scrapped Joint Chiefs of Staff Directive 1067 implemented as part of the Morgenthau Plan under the personal supervision of Roosevelt's treasury secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr., which had decreed "take no steps looking toward the economic rehabilitation of Germany [or] designed to maintain or strengthen the German economy." Thereafter, JCS 1067 was supplanted by JCS 1779, stating that "an orderly and prosperous Europe requires the economic contributions of a stable and productive Germany." The restrictions placed on German heavy industry production were partly ameliorated; permitted steel production levels were raised from 25% of pre-war capacity to a new limit placed at 50% of pre-war capacity.
With a threatening Greece, and Britain financially unable to continue its aid, the President announced his Truman Doctrine on March 12, 1947, "to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures", with an aid request for consideration and decision, concerning Greece and Turkey. Also in March 1947, former US President Herbert Hoover, in one of his reports from Germany, argued for a change in US occupation policy, among other things stating:
There is the illusion that the New Germany left after the annexations can be reduced to a 'pastoral state' (Morgenthau's vision). It cannot be done unless we exterminate or move 25,000,000 people out of it.
Hoover further noted that, "The whole economy of Europe is interlinked with German economy through the exchange of raw materials and manufactured goods. The productivity of Europe cannot be restored without the restoration of Germany as a contributor to that productivity." Hoover's report led to a realization in Washington that a new policy was needed; "almost any action would be an improvement on current policy." In Washington, the Joint Chiefs declared that the "complete revival of German industry, particularly coal mining" was now of "primary importance" to American security.
The United States was already spending a great deal to help Europe recover. Over $14 billion was spent or loaned during the postwar period through the end of 1947 and is not counted as part of the Marshall Plan. Much of this aid was designed to restore infrastructure and help refugees. Britain, for example, received an emergency loan of $3.75 billion.
The United Nations also launched a series of humanitarian and relief efforts almost wholly funded by the United States. These efforts had important effects, but they lacked any central organization and planning, and failed to meet many of Europe's more fundamental needs. Already in 1943, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was founded to provide relief to areas liberated from Germany. UNRRA provided billions of dollars of rehabilitation aid and helped about 8 million refugees. It ceased operation of displaced persons camps in Europe in 1947; many of its functions were transferred to several UN agencies.
After Marshall's appointment in January 1947, administration officials met with Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov and others to press for an economically self-sufficient Germany, including a detailed accounting of the industrial plants, goods and infrastructure already removed by the Soviets in their occupied zone. Molotov refrained from supplying accounts of Soviet assets. The Soviets took a punitive approach, pressing for a delay rather than an acceleration in economic rehabilitation, demanding unconditional fulfillment of all prior reparation claims, and pressing for progress toward nationwide socioeconomic transformation.
After six weeks of negotiations, Molotov rejected all of the American and British proposals. Molotov also rejected the counter-offer to scrap the British-American "Bizonia" and to include the Soviet zone within the newly constructed Germany. Marshall was particularly discouraged after personally meeting with Stalin to explain that the United States could not possibly abandon its position on Germany, while Stalin expressed little interest in a solution to German economic problems.
After the adjournment of the Moscow conference following six weeks of failed discussions with the Soviets regarding a potential German reconstruction, the United States concluded that a solution could not wait any longer. To clarify the American position, a major address by Secretary of State George Marshall was planned. Marshall gave the address at Harvard University on June 5, 1947. He offered American aid to promote European recovery and reconstruction. The speech described the dysfunction of the European economy and presented a rationale for US aid.
The modern system of the division of labor upon which the exchange of products is based is in danger of breaking down. ... Aside from the demoralizing effect on the world at large and the possibilities of disturbances arising as a result of the desperation of the people concerned, the consequences to the economy of the United States should be apparent to all. It is logical that the United States should do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economic health to the world, without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace. Our policy is not directed against any country, but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos. Any government that is willing to assist in recovery will find full co-operation on the part of the United States. Its purpose should be the revival of a working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist.
Marshall was convinced that economic stability would provide political stability in Europe. He offered aid, but the European countries had to organize the program themselves.
The speech, written by Charles Bohlen, contained virtually no details and no numbers. More a proposal than a plan, it was a challenge to European leaders to cooperate and coordinate. It asked Europeans to create their own plan for rebuilding Europe, indicating the United States would then fund this plan. The administration felt that the plan would likely be unpopular among many Americans, and the speech was mainly directed at a European audience. In an attempt to keep the speech out of American papers, journalists were not contacted, and on the same day, Truman called a press conference to take away headlines. In contrast, Dean Acheson, an Under Secretary of State, was dispatched to contact the European media, especially the British media, and the speech was read in its entirety on the BBC.
British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin heard Marshall's radio broadcast speech and immediately contacted French Foreign Minister Georges Bidault to begin preparing a quick European response to (and acceptance of) the offer, which led to the creation of the Committee of European Economic Co-operation. The two agreed that it would be necessary to invite the Soviets as the other major allied power. Marshall's speech had explicitly included an invitation to the Soviets, feeling that excluding them would have been a sign of distrust. State Department officials, however, knew that Stalin would almost certainly not participate and that any plan that would send large amounts of aid to the Soviets was unlikely to get Congressional approval.
Speaking at the Paris Peace Conference on October 10, 1946 Molotov had already stated Soviet fears: "If American capital was given a free hand in the small states ruined and enfeebled by the war [it] would buy up the local industries, appropriate the more attractive Rumanian, Yugoslav ... enterprises and would become the master in these small states." While the Soviet ambassador in Washington suspected that the Marshall Plan could lead to the creation of an anti-Soviet bloc, Stalin was open to the offer. He directed that—in negotiations to be held in Paris regarding the aid—countries in the Eastern Bloc should not reject economic conditions being placed upon them. Stalin only changed his outlook when he learned that (a) credit would only be extended under conditions of economic cooperation and, (b) aid would also be extended to Germany in total, an eventuality which Stalin thought would hamper the Soviets' ability to exercise influence in western Germany.
Initially, Stalin maneuvered to kill the Plan, or at least hamper it by means of destructive participation in the Paris talks regarding conditions. He quickly realized, however, that this would be impossible after Molotov reported—following his arrival in Paris in July 1947—that conditions for the credit were non-negotiable. Looming as just as large a concern was the Czechoslovak eagerness to accept the aid, as well as indications of a similar Polish attitude.
Stalin suspected a possibility that these Eastern Bloc countries might defy Soviet directives not to accept the aid, potentially causing a loss of control of the Eastern Bloc. In addition, the most important condition was that every country choosing to take advantage of the plan would need to have its economic situation independently assessed—a level of scrutiny to which the Soviets could not agree. Bevin and Bidault also insisted that any aid be accompanied by the creation of a unified European economy, something incompatible with the strict Soviet command economy.
Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov left Paris, rejecting the plan. Thereafter, statements were made suggesting a future confrontation with the West, calling the United States both a "fascizing" power and the "center of worldwide reaction and anti-Soviet activity", with all U.S.-aligned countries branded as enemies. The Soviets also then blamed the United States for communist losses in elections in Belgium, France and Italy months earlier, in the spring of 1947. It claimed that "marshallization" must be resisted and prevented by any means, and that French and Italian communist parties were to take maximum efforts to sabotage the implementation of the Plan. In addition, Western embassies in Moscow were isolated, with their personnel being denied contact with Soviet officials.
On July 12, a larger meeting was convened in Paris. Every country of Europe was invited, with the exceptions of Spain (a World War II neutral that had sympathized with the Axis powers) and the small states of Andorra, San Marino, Monaco, and Liechtenstein. The Soviet Union was invited with the understanding that it would likely refuse. The states of the future Eastern Bloc were also approached, and Czechoslovakia and Poland agreed to attend. In one of the clearest signs and reflections of tight Soviet control and domination over the region, Jan Masaryk, the foreign minister of Czechoslovakia, was summoned to Moscow and berated by Stalin for considering Czechoslovakia's possible involvement with and joining of the Marshall Plan. The prime minister of Poland, Józef Cyrankiewicz, was rewarded by Stalin for his country's rejection of the Plan, which came in the form of the Soviet Union's offer of a lucrative trade agreement lasting for a period of five years, a grant amounting to the approximate equivalent of $450 million (in 1948; the sum would have been $4.4 billion in 2014) in the form of long-term credit and loans and the provision of 200,000 tonnes of grain, heavy and manufacturing machinery and factories and heavy industries to Poland.
The Marshall Plan participants were not surprised when the Czechoslovakian and Polish delegations were prevented from attending the Paris meeting. The other Eastern Bloc states immediately rejected the offer. Finland also declined, to avoid antagonizing the Soviets (see also Finlandization). The Soviet Union's "alternative" to the Marshall plan, which was purported to involve Soviet subsidies and trade with western Europe, became known as the Molotov Plan, and later, the Comecon. In a 1947 speech to the United Nations, Soviet deputy foreign minister Andrei Vyshinsky said that the Marshall Plan violated the principles of the United Nations. He accused the United States of attempting to impose its will on other independent states, while at the same time using economic resources distributed as relief to needy nations as an instrument of political pressure.
Although all other Communist European Countries had deferred to Stalin and rejected the aid, the Yugoslavs, led by Josip Broz (Tito), at first went along and rejected the Marshall Plan. However, in 1948 Tito broke decisively with Stalin on other issues, making Yugoslavia an independent communist state. Yugoslavia requested American aid. American leaders were internally divided, but finally agreed and began sending money on a small scale in 1949, and on a much larger scale in 1950–53. The American aid was not part of the Marshall Plan.
In late September, the Soviet Union called a meeting of nine European Communist parties in southwest Poland. A Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) report was read at the outset to set the heavily anti-Western tone, stating now that "international politics is dominated by the ruling clique of the American imperialists" which have embarked upon the "enslavement of the weakened capitalist countries of Europe". Communist parties were to struggle against the US presence in Europe by any means necessary, including sabotage. The report further claimed that "reactionary imperialist elements throughout the world, particularly in the United States, in Britain and France, had put particular hope on Germany and Japan, primarily on Hitlerite Germany—first as a force most capable of striking a blow at the Soviet Union".
Referring to the Eastern Bloc, the report stated that "the Red Army's liberating role was complemented by an upsurge of the freedom-loving peoples' liberation struggle against the fascist predators and their hirelings." It argued that "the bosses of Wall Street" were "tak[ing] the place of Germany, Japan and Italy". The Marshall Plan was described as "the American plan for the enslavement of Europe". It described the world now breaking down "into basically two camps—the imperialist and antidemocratic camp on the one hand, and the antiimperialist and democratic camp on the other".
Although the Eastern Bloc countries except Czechoslovakia had immediately rejected Marshall Plan aid, Eastern Bloc communist parties were blamed for permitting even minor influence by non-communists in their respective countries during the run up to the Marshall Plan. The meeting's chair, Andrei Zhdanov, who was in permanent radio contact with the Kremlin from whom he received instructions, also castigated communist parties in France and Italy for collaboration with those countries' domestic agendas. Zhdanov warned that if they continued to fail to maintain international contact with Moscow to consult on all matters, "extremely harmful consequences for the development of the brother parties' work" would result.
Italian and French communist leaders were prevented by party rules from pointing out that it was actually Stalin who had directed them not to take opposition stances in 1944. The French communist party, as others, was then to redirect its mission to "destroy capitalist economy" and that the Soviet Communist Information Bureau (Cominform) would take control of the French Communist Party's activities to oppose the Marshall Plan. When they asked Zhdanov if they should prepare for armed revolt when they returned home, he did not answer. In a follow-up conversation with Stalin, he explained that an armed struggle would be impossible and that the struggle against the Marshall Plan was to be waged under the slogan of national independence.
Congress, under the control of conservative Republicans, agreed to the program for multiple reasons. The 20-member conservative isolationist Senate wing of the party, based in the rural Midwest and led by Senator Kenneth S. Wherry (R-Nebraska), was outmaneuvered by the emerging internationalist wing, led by Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg (R-Michigan). The opposition argued that it would be "a wasteful 'operation rat-hole'"; that it made no sense to oppose communism by supporting the socialist governments in Western Europe; and that American goods would reach Russia and increase its war potential. Vandenberg, assisted by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. (R-Massachusetts) admitted there was no certainty that the plan would succeed, but said it would halt economic chaos, sustain Western civilization, and stop further Soviet expansion. Senator Robert A. Taft (R-Ohio) hedged on the issue. He said it was without economic justification; however, it was "absolutely necessary" in "the world battle against communism." In the end, only 17 senators voted against it on March 13, 1948 A bill granting an initial $5 billion passed Congress with strong bipartisan support. Congress would eventually allocate $12.4 billion in aid over the four years of the plan.
Congress reflected public opinion, which resonated with the ideological argument that communism flourishes in poverty. Truman's own prestige and power had been greatly enhanced by his stunning victory in the 1948 election. Across America, multiple interest groups, including business, labor, farming, philanthropy, ethnic groups, and religious groups, saw the Marshall Plan as an inexpensive solution to a massive problem, noting it would also help American exports and stimulate the American economy as well. Major newspapers were highly supportive, including such conservative outlets as "Time" magazine. Vandenberg made sure of bipartisan support on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The Solid Democratic South was highly supportive, the upper Midwest was dubious, but heavily outnumbered. The plan was opposed by conservatives in the rural Midwest, who opposed any major government spending program and were highly suspicious of Europeans. The plan also had some opponents on the left, led by Henry A. Wallace, the former Vice President. He said the Plan was hostile to the Soviet Union, a subsidy for American exporters, and sure to polarize the world between East and West. However, opposition against the Marshall Plan was greatly reduced by the shock of the Communist coup in Czechoslovakia in February 1948. The appointment of the prominent businessman Paul G. Hoffman as director reassured conservative businessmen that the gigantic sums of money would be handled efficiently.
Turning the plan into reality required negotiations among the participating nations. Sixteen nations met in Paris to determine what form the American aid would take, and how it would be divided. The negotiations were long and complex, with each nation having its own interests. France's major concern was that Germany not be rebuilt to its previous threatening power. The Benelux countries (Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg), despite also suffering under the Nazis, had long been closely linked to the German economy and felt their prosperity depended on its revival. The Scandinavian nations, especially Sweden, insisted that their long-standing trading relationships with the Eastern Bloc nations not be disrupted and that their neutrality not be infringed.
The United Kingdom insisted on special status as a longstanding belligerent during the war, concerned that if it were treated equally with the devastated continental powers it would receive virtually no aid. The Americans were pushing the importance of free trade and European unity to form a bulwark against communism. The Truman administration, represented by William L. Clayton, promised the Europeans that they would be free to structure the plan themselves, but the administration also reminded the Europeans that implementation depended on the plan's passage through Congress. A majority of Congress members were committed to free trade and European integration, and were hesitant to spend too much of the money on Germany. However, before the Marshall Plan was in effect, France, Austria, and Italy needed immediate aid. On December 17, 1947, the United States agreed to give $40 million to France, Austria, China, and Italy.
Agreement was eventually reached and the Europeans sent a reconstruction plan to Washington, which was formulated and agreed upon by the Committee of European Economic Co-operation in 1947. In the document, the Europeans asked for $22 billion in aid. Truman cut this to $17 billion in the bill he put to Congress.
On March 17, 1948, Truman addressed European security and condemned the Soviet Union before a hastily convened Joint Session of Congress. Attempting to contain spreading Soviet influence in the Eastern Bloc, Truman asked Congress to restore a peacetime military draft and to swiftly pass the Economic Cooperation Act, the name given to the Marshall Plan. Of the Soviet Union Truman said, "The situation in the world today is not primarily the result of the natural difficulties which follow a great war. It is chiefly due to the fact that one nation has not only refused to cooperate in the establishment of a just and honorable peace but—even worse—has actively sought to prevent it."
Members of the Republican-controlled 80th Congress (1947–1949) were skeptical. "In effect, he told the Nation that we have lost the peace, that our whole war effort was in vain.", noted Representative Frederick Smith of Ohio. Others thought he had not been forceful enough to contain the USSR. "What [Truman] said fell short of being tough", noted Representative Eugene Cox, a Democrat from Georgia, "there is no prospect of ever winning Russian cooperation." Despite its reservations, the 80th Congress implemented Truman's requests, further escalating the Cold War with the USSR.
Truman signed the Economic Cooperation Act into law on April 3, 1948; the Act established the Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA) to administer the program. ECA was headed by economic cooperation administrator Paul G. Hoffman. In the same year, the participating countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, West Germany, the United Kingdom, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United States) signed an accord establishing a master financial-aid-coordinating agency, the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (later called the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development or OECD), which was headed by Frenchman Robert Marjolin.
The first substantial aid went to Greece and Turkey in January 1947, which were seen as the front line of the battle against communist expansion, and were already receiving aid under the Truman Doctrine. Initially, Britain had supported the anti-communist factions in those countries, but due to its dire economic condition it decided to pull out and in February 1947 requested the US to continue its efforts. The ECA formally began operation in July 1948.
The ECA's official mission statement was to give a boost to the European economy: to promote European production, to bolster European currency, and to facilitate international trade, especially with the United States, whose economic interest required Europe to become wealthy enough to import US goods. Another unofficial goal of ECA (and of the Marshall Plan) was the containment of growing Soviet influence in Europe, evident especially in the growing strength of communist parties in Czechoslovakia, France, and Italy.
The Marshall Plan money was transferred to the governments of the European nations. The funds were jointly administered by the local governments and the ECA. Each European capital had an ECA envoy, generally a prominent American businessman, who would advise on the process. The cooperative allocation of funds was encouraged, and panels of government, business, and labor leaders were convened to examine the economy and see where aid was needed.
The Marshall Plan aid was mostly used for the purchase of goods from the United States. The European nations had all but exhausted their foreign-exchange reserves during the war, and the Marshall Plan aid represented almost their sole means of importing goods from abroad. At the start of the plan, these imports were mainly much-needed staples such as food and fuel, but later the purchases turned towards reconstruction needs as was originally intended. In the latter years, under pressure from the United States Congress and with the outbreak of the Korean War, an increasing amount of the aid was spent on rebuilding the militaries of Western Europe. Of the some $13 billion allotted by mid-1951, $3.4 billion had been spent on imports of raw materials and semi-manufactured products; $3.2 billion on food, feed, and fertilizer; $1.9 billion on machines, vehicles, and equipment; and $1.6 billion on fuel.
Also established were counterpart funds, which used Marshall Plan aid to establish funds in the local currency. According to ECA rules, recipients had to invest 60% of these funds in industry. This was prominent in Germany, where these government-administered funds played a crucial role in lending money to private enterprises which would spend the money rebuilding. These funds played a central role in the reindustrialization of Germany. In 1949–50, for instance, 40% of the investment in the German coal industry was by these funds.
The companies were obligated to repay the loans to the government, and the money would then be lent out to another group of businesses. This process has continued to this day in the guise of the state-owned KfW bank, (Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, meaning Reconstruction Credit Institute). The Special Fund, then supervised by the Federal Economics Ministry, was worth over DM 10 billion in 1971. In 1997 it was worth DM 23 billion. Through the revolving loan system, the Fund had by the end of 1995 made low-interest loans to German citizens amounting to around DM 140 billion. The other 40% of the counterpart funds were used to pay down the debt, stabilize the currency, or invest in non-industrial projects. France made the most extensive use of counterpart funds, using them to reduce the budget deficit. In France, and most other countries, the counterpart fund money was absorbed into general government revenues, and not recycled as in Germany.
The Netherlands received US aid for economic recovery in the Netherlands Indies. However, in January 1949, the American government suspended this aid in response to the Dutch efforts to restore colonial rule in Indonesia during the Indonesian National Revolution, and it implicitly threatened to suspend Marshall aid to the Netherlands if the Dutch government continued to oppose the independence of Indonesia.
At the time the United States was a significant oil producing nation — one of the goals of the Marshall Plan was for Europe to use oil in place of coal, but the Europeans wanted to buy crude oil and use the Marshall Plan funds to build refineries instead. However, when independent American oil companies complained, the ECA denied funds for European refinery construction.
A high priority was increasing industrial productivity in Europe, which proved one of the more successful aspects of the Marshall Plan. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) contributed heavily to the success of the Technical Assistance Program. The United States Congress passed a law on June 7, 1940 that allowed the BLS to "make continuing studies of labor productivity" and appropriated funds for the creation of a Productivity and Technological Development Division. The BLS could then use its expertise in the field of productive efficiency to implement a productivity drive in each Western European country receiving Marshall Plan aid. Counterpart funds were used to finance large-scale tours of American industry. France, for example, sent 500 missions with 4700 businessmen and experts to tour American factories, farms, stores, and offices. They were especially impressed with the prosperity of American workers, and how they could purchase an inexpensive new automobile for nine months work, compared to 30 months in France.
By implementing technological literature surveys and organized plant visits, American economists, statisticians, and engineers were able to educate European manufacturers in statistical measurement. The goal of the statistical and technical assistance from the Americans was to increase productive efficiency of European manufacturers in all industries.
To conduct this analysis, the BLS performed two types of productivity calculations. First, they used existing data to calculate how much a worker produces per hour of work—the average output rate. Second, they compared the existing output rates in a particular country to output rates in other nations. By performing these calculations across all industries, the BLS was able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each country's manufacturing and industrial production. From that, the BLS could recommend technologies (especially statistical) that each individual nation could implement. Often, these technologies came from the United States; by the time the Technical Assistance Program began, the United States used statistical technologies "more than a generation ahead of what [the Europeans] were using".
The BLS used these statistical technologies to create Factory Performance Reports for Western European nations. The American government sent hundreds of technical advisers to Europe to observe workers in the field. This on-site analysis made the Factory Performance Reports especially helpful to the manufacturers. In addition, the Technical Assistance Program funded 24,000 European engineers, leaders, and industrialists to visit America and tour America's factories, mines, and manufacturing plants. This way, the European visitors would be able to return to their home countries and implement the technologies used in the United States. The analyses in the Factory Performance Reports and the "hands-on" experience had by the European productivity teams effectively identified productivity deficiencies in European industries; from there, it became clearer how to make European production more effective.
Before the Technical Assistance Program even went into effect, United States Secretary of Labor Maurice Tobin expressed his confidence in American productivity and technology to both American and European economic leaders. He urged that the United States play a large role in improving European productive efficiency by providing four recommendations for the program's administrators:
The effects of the Technical Assistance Program were not limited to improvements in productive efficiency. While the thousands of European leaders took their work/study trips to the United States, they were able to observe a number of aspects of American society as well. The Europeans could watch local, state, and federal governments work together with citizens in a pluralist society. They observed a democratic society with open universities and civic societies in addition to more advanced factories and manufacturing plants. The Technical Assistance Program allowed Europeans to bring home many types of American ideas.
Another important aspect of the Technical Assistance Program was its low cost. While $19.4 billion was allocated for capital costs in the Marshall Plan, the Technical Assistance Program only required $300 million. Only one-third of that $300 million cost was paid by the United States.
Even while the Marshall Plan was being implemented, the dismantling of ostensibly German industry continued; and in 1949 Konrad Adenauer, an opponent to Hitler's regime and the head of the Christian Democratic Union, wrote to the Allies requesting the end of industrial dismantling, citing the inherent contradiction between encouraging industrial growth and removing factories, and also the unpopularity of the policy. Adenauer had been released from prison, only to discover that the Soviets had effectively divided Europe with Germany divided even further. Support for dismantling was by this time coming predominantly from the French, and the Petersberg Agreement of November 1949 greatly reduced the levels of deindustrialization, though dismantling of minor factories continued until 1951. The first "level of industry" plan, signed by the Allies on March 29, 1946, had stated that German heavy industry was to be lowered to 50% of its 1938 levels by the destruction of 1,500 listed manufacturing plants. Marshall Plan played a huge role in post-war recovery for Europe in general. 1948, conditions were improving, European workers exceeded by 20 percent from the earning from the west side. Thanks to the Plan, during 1952, it went up 35 percent of the industrial and agricultural.
In January 1946 the Allied Control Council set the foundation of the future German economy by putting a cap on German steel production. The maximum allowed was set at about 5,800,000 tons of steel a year, equivalent to 25% of the pre-war production level. The UK, in whose occupation zone most of the steel production was located, had argued for a more limited capacity reduction by placing the production ceiling at 12 million tons of steel per year, but had to submit to the will of the US, France and the Soviet Union (which had argued for a 3 million ton limit). Steel plants thus made redundant were to be dismantled. Germany was to be reduced to the standard of life it had known at the height of the Great Depression (1932). Consequently, car production was set to 10% of pre-war levels, and the manufacture of other commodities was reduced as well.
The first "German level of industry" plan was subsequently followed by a number of new ones, the last signed in 1949. By 1950, after the virtual completion of the by then much watered-down "level of industry" plans, equipment had been removed from 706 manufacturing plants in western Germany and steel production capacity had been reduced by 6,700,000 tons. Vladimir Petrov concludes that the Allies "delayed by several years the economic reconstruction of the war-torn continent, a reconstruction which subsequently cost the United States billions of dollars." In 1951 West Germany agreed to join the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) the following year. This meant that some of the economic restrictions on production capacity and on actual production that were imposed by the International Authority for the Ruhr were lifted, and that its role was taken over by the ECSC.
The Marshall Plan aid was divided among the participant states on a roughly per capita basis. A larger amount was given to the major industrial powers, as the prevailing opinion was that their resuscitation was essential for general European revival. Somewhat more aid per capita was also directed towards the Allied nations, with less for those that had been part of the Axis or remained neutral. The exception was Iceland, which had been neutral during the war, but received far more on a per capita basis than the second highest recipient. The table below shows Marshall Plan aid by country and year (in millions of dollars) from "The Marshall Plan Fifty Years Later." There is no clear consensus on exact amounts, as different scholars differ on exactly what elements of American aid during this period were part of the Marshall Plan.
The Marshall Plan, just as GARIOA, consisted of aid both in the form of grants and in the form of loans. Out of the total, US$1.2 billion were loan-aid.
Ireland which received US$146.2 million through the Marshall Plan, received US$128.2 million as loans, and the remaining US$18 million as grants. By 1969 the Irish Marshall Plan debt, which was still being repaid, amounted to 31 million pounds, out of a total Irish foreign debt of 50 million pounds.
The UK received US$385 million of its Marshall Plan aid in the form of loans. Unconnected to the Marshall Plan the UK also received direct loans from the US amounting to US$4.6 billion. The proportion of Marshall Plan loans versus Marshall Plan grants was roughly 15% to 85% for both the UK and France.
Germany, which up until the 1953 Debt agreement had to work on the assumption that all the Marshall Plan aid was to be repaid, spent its funds very carefully. Payment for Marshall Plan goods, "counterpart funds", were administered by the Reconstruction Credit Institute, which used the funds for loans inside Germany. In the 1953 Debt agreement, the amount of Marshall plan aid that Germany was to repay was reduced to less than US$1 billion. This made the proportion of loans versus grants to Germany similar to that of France and the UK. The final German loan repayment was made in 1971. Since Germany chose to repay the aid debt out of the German Federal budget, leaving the German ERP fund intact, the fund was able to continue its reconstruction work. By 1996 it had accumulated a value of 23 billion Deutsche Mark.
The Central Intelligence Agency received 5% of the Marshall Plan funds (about $685 million spread over six years), which it used to finance secret operations abroad. Through the Office of Policy Coordination money was directed towards support for labor unions, newspapers, student groups, artists and intellectuals, who were countering the anti-American counterparts subsidized by the Communists. The largest sum went to the Congress for Cultural Freedom. There were no agents working among the Soviets or their satellite states. The founding conference of the Congress for Cultural Freedom was held in Berlin in June 1950. Among the leading intellectuals from the US and Western Europe were writers, philosophers, critics and historians: Franz Borkenau, Karl Jaspers, John Dewey, Ignazio Silone, James Burnham, Hugh Trevor-Roper, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Bertrand Russell, Ernst Reuter, Raymond Aron, Alfred Ayer, Benedetto Croce, Arthur Koestler, Richard Löwenthal, Melvin J. Lasky, Tennessee Williams, Irving Brown, and Sidney Hook. There were conservatives among the participants, but non-Communist (or former Communist) left-wingers were more numerous.
The Marshall Plan was originally scheduled to end in 1953. Any effort to extend it was halted by the growing cost of the Korean War and rearmament. American Republicans hostile to the plan had also gained seats in the 1950 Congressional elections, and conservative opposition to the plan was revived. Thus the plan ended in 1951, though various other forms of American aid to Europe continued afterwards.
The years 1948 to 1952 saw the fastest period of growth in European history. Industrial production increased by 35%. Agricultural production substantially surpassed pre-war levels. The poverty and starvation of the immediate postwar years disappeared, and Western Europe embarked upon an unprecedented two decades of growth that saw standards of living increase dramatically. Additionally, the long-term effect of economic integration raised European income levels substantially, by nearly 20 percent by the mid-1970s. There is some debate among historians over how much this should be credited to the Marshall Plan. Most reject the idea that it alone miraculously revived Europe, as evidence shows that a general recovery was already underway. Most believe that the Marshall Plan sped this recovery, but did not initiate it. Many argue that the structural adjustments that it forced were of great importance. Economic historians J. Bradford DeLong and Barry Eichengreen call it "history's most successful structural adjustment program." One effect of the plan was that it subtly "Americanized" European countries, especially Austria, through new exposure to American popular culture, including the growth in influence of Hollywood movies and rock n' roll.
The political effects of the Marshall Plan may have been just as important as the economic ones. Marshall Plan aid allowed the nations of Western Europe to relax austerity measures and rationing, reducing discontent and bringing political stability. The communist influence on Western Europe was greatly reduced, and throughout the region, communist parties faded in popularity in the years after the Marshall Plan. The trade relations fostered by the Marshall Plan helped forge the North Atlantic alliance that would persist throughout the Cold War in the form of NATO. At the same time, the nonparticipation of the states of the Eastern Bloc was one of the first clear signs that the continent was now divided.
The Marshall Plan also played an important role in European integration. Both the Americans and many of the European leaders felt that European integration was necessary to secure the peace and prosperity of Europe, and thus used Marshall Plan guidelines to foster integration. In some ways, this effort failed, as the OEEC never grew to be more than an agent of economic cooperation. Rather, it was the separate European Coal and Steel Community, which did not include Britain, that would eventually grow into the European Union. However, the OEEC served as both a testing and training ground for the structures that would later be used by the European Economic Community. The Marshall Plan, linked into the Bretton Woods system, also mandated free trade throughout the region.
While some historians today feel some of the praise for the Marshall Plan is exaggerated, it is still viewed favorably and many thus feel that a similar project would help other areas of the world. After the fall of communism, several proposed a "Marshall Plan for Eastern Europe" that would help revive that region. Others have proposed a Marshall Plan for Africa to help that continent, and US Vice President Al Gore suggested a Global Marshall Plan. "Marshall Plan" has become a metaphor for any very large-scale government program that is designed to solve a specific social problem. It is usually used when calling for federal spending to correct a perceived failure of the private sector.
Nicholas Shaxson comments: “It is widely believed that the plan worked by offsetting European countries’ yawning deficits. But its real importance ... was simply to compensate for the US failure to institute controls on inflows of hot money from Europe. ... American post-war aid was less than the money flowing in the other direction.“ European hot money inflated the US dollar, to the disadvantage of US exporters.
The Marshall Plan money was in the form of grants from the U.S. Treasury that did not have to be repaid. The Organisation for European Economic Co-operation took the leading role in allocating funds, and the OEEC arranged for the transfer of the goods. The American supplier was paid in dollars, which were credited against the appropriate European Recovery Program funds. The European recipient, however, was not given the goods as a gift but had to pay for them (usually on credit) in local currency. These payments were kept by the European government involved in a special counterpart fund. This counterpart money, in turn, could be used by the government for further investment projects. Five percent of the counterpart money was paid to the US to cover the administrative costs of the ERP. In addition to ERP grants, the Export-Import Bank (an agency of the US government) at the same time made long-term loans at low interest rates to finance major purchases in the US, all of which were repaid.
In the case of Germany, there also were 16 billion marks of debts from the 1920s which had defaulted in the 1930s, but which Germany decided to repay to restore its reputation. This money was owed to government and private banks in the US, France, and Britain. Another 16 billion marks represented postwar loans by the US. Under the London Debts Agreement of 1953, the repayable amount was reduced by 50% to about 15 billion marks and stretched out over 30 years, and compared to the fast-growing German economy were of minor impact.
Large parts of the world devastated by World War II did not benefit from the Marshall Plan. The only major Western European nation excluded was Francisco Franco's Spain, which was highly unpopular in Washington. With the escalation of the Cold War, the United States reconsidered its position, and in 1951 embraced Spain as an ally, encouraged by Franco's aggressive anti-communist policies. Over the next decade, a considerable amount of American aid would go to Spain, but less than its neighbors had received under the Marshall Plan.
The Soviet Union had been as badly affected as any part of the world by the war. The Soviets imposed large reparations payments on the Axis allies that were in its sphere of influence. Austria, Finland, Hungary, Romania, and especially East Germany were forced to pay vast sums and ship large amounts of supplies to the USSR. These reparation payments meant the Soviet Union itself received about the same as 16 European countries received in total from Marshall Plan aid.
In accordance with the agreements with the USSR, shipment of dismantled German industrial installations from the west began on March 31, 1946. Under the terms of the agreement, the Soviet Union would in return ship raw materials such as food and timber to the western zones. In view of the Soviet failure to do so, the western zones halted the shipments east, ostensibly on a temporary basis, although they were never resumed. It was later shown that the main reason for halting shipments east was not the behavior of the USSR but rather the recalcitrant behavior of France. Examples of material received by the USSR were equipment from the Kugel-Fischer ballbearing plant at Schweinfurt, the Daimler-Benz underground aircraft-engine plant at Obrigheim, the Deschimag shipyards at Bremen-Weser, and the Gendorf powerplant.
The USSR did establish COMECON as a riposte to the Marshall Plan to deliver aid for Eastern Bloc countries, but this was complicated by the Soviet efforts to manage their own recovery from the war. The members of Comecon looked to the Soviet Union for oil; in turn, they provided machinery, equipment, agricultural goods, industrial goods, and consumer goods to the Soviet Union. Economic recovery in the East was much slower than in the West, resulting in the formation of the shortage economies and a gap in wealth between East and West. Finland, which the USSR forbade to join the Marshall Plan and which was required to give large reparations to the USSR, saw its economy recover to pre-war levels in 1947. France, which received billions of dollars through the Marshall Plan, similarly saw its average income per person return to almost pre-war level by 1949. By mid-1948 industrial production in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Czechoslovakia had recovered to a level somewhat above pre-war level.
From the end of the war to the end of 1953, the US provided grants and credits amounting to $5.9 billion to Asian countries, especially China/Taiwan ($1.051 billion), India ($255 million), Indonesia ($215 million), Japan ($2.44 billion), South Korea ($894 million), Pakistan ($98 million) and the Philippines ($803 million). In addition, another $282 million went to Israel and $196 million to the rest of the Middle East. All this aid was separate from the Marshall Plan.
Canada, like the United States, was damaged little by the war and in 1945 was one of the world's richest economies. It operated its own aid program. In 1948, the US allowed ERP aid to be used in purchasing goods from Canada. Canada made over a billion dollars in sales in the first two years of operation.
The total of American grants and loans to the world from 1945 to 1953 came to $44.3 billion.
Bradford DeLong and Barry Eichengreen conclude it was "History's Most Successful Structural Adjustment Program." They state:
It was not large enough to have significantly accelerated recovery by financing investment, aiding the reconstruction of damaged infrastructure, or easing commodity bottlenecks. We argue, however, that the Marshall Plan did play a major role in setting the stage for post-World War II Western Europe's rapid growth. The conditions attached to Marshall Plan aid pushed European political economy in a direction that left its post World War II "mixed economies" with more "market" and less "controls" in the mix.
Prior to passing and enacting the Marshall Plan, President Truman and George Marshall started a domestic overhaul of public opinion from coast to coast. The purpose of this campaign was to sway public opinion in their direction and to inform the common person of what the Marshall Plan was and what the Plan would ultimately do. They spent months attempting to convince Americans that their cause was just and that they should embrace the higher taxes that would come in the foreseeable future.
A copious amount of propaganda ended up being highly effective in swaying public opinion towards supporting the Marshall Plan. During the nationwide campaign for support, "more than a million pieces of pro-Marshall Plan publications-booklets, leaflets, reprints, and fact sheets", were disseminated. Truman's and Marshall's efforts proved to be effective. A Gallup Poll taken between the months of July and December 1947 shows the percentage of Americans unaware of the Marshall Plan fell from 51% to 36% nationwide. By the time the Marshall Plan was ready to be implemented, there was a general consensus throughout the American public that this was the right policy for both America, and the countries who would be receiving aid.
During the period leading up to World War II, Americans were highly isolationist, and many called The Marshall Plan a "milestone" for American ideology. By looking at polling data over time from pre-World War II to post-World War II, one would find that there was a change in public opinion in regards to ideology. Americans swapped their isolationist ideals for a much more global internationalist ideology after World War II.
In a National Opinion Research Center (NORC) poll taken in April 1945, a cross-section of Americans were asked, "If our government keeps on sending lendlease materials, which we may not get paid for, to friendly countries for about three years after the war, do you think this will mean more jobs or fewer jobs for most Americans, or won't it make any difference?" 75% said the same or more jobs; 10% said fewer.
Before proposing anything to Congress in 1947, the Truman administration made an elaborate effort to organize public opinion in favor of the Marshall Plan spending, reaching out to numerous national organizations representing business, labor, farmers, women, and other interest groups. Political scientist Ralph Levering points out that:
Mounting large public relations campaigns and supporting private groups such as the Citizens Committee for the Marshall Plan, the administration carefully built public and bipartisan Congressional support before bringing these measures to a vote.
Public opinion polls in 1947 consistently showed strong support for the Marshall plan among Americans. Furthermore, Gallup polls in England, France, and Italy showed favorable majorities over 60%
Laissez-faire criticism of the Marshall Plan came from a number of economists. Wilhelm Röpke, who influenced German Minister for Economy Ludwig Erhard in his economic recovery program, believed recovery would be found in eliminating central planning and restoring a market economy in Europe, especially in those countries which had adopted more fascist and corporatist economic policies. Röpke criticized the Marshall Plan for forestalling the transition to the free market by subsidizing the current, failing systems. Erhard put Röpke's theory into practice and would later credit Röpke's influence for West Germany's preeminent success.
Henry Hazlitt criticized the Marshall Plan in his 1947 book "Will Dollars Save the World?", arguing that economic recovery comes through savings, capital accumulation, and private enterprise, and not through large cash subsidies. Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises criticized the Marshall Plan in 1951, believing that "the American subsidies make it possible for [Europe's] governments to conceal partially the disastrous effects of the various socialist measures they have adopted". Some critics and Congressmen at the time believed that America was giving too much aid to Europe. America had already given Europe $9 billion in other forms of help in previous years. The Marshall Plan gave another $13 billion, equivalent to about $100 billion in 2010 value.
However, its role in the rapid recovery has been debated. Most reject the idea that it alone miraculously revived Europe since the evidence shows that a general recovery was already underway. The Marshall Plan grants were provided at a rate that was not much higher in terms of flow than the previous UNRRA aid and represented less than 3% of the combined national income of the recipient countries between 1948 and 1951, which would mean an increase in GDP growth of only 0.3%. In addition, there is no correlation between the amount of aid received and the speed of recovery: both France and the United Kingdom received more aid, but West Germany recovered significantly faster.
Criticism of the Marshall Plan became prominent among historians of the revisionist school, such as Walter LaFeber, during the 1960s and 1970s. They argued that the plan was American economic imperialism and that it was an attempt to gain control over Western Europe just as the Soviets controlled Eastern Europe economically through the Comecon. In a review of West Germany's economy from 1945 to 1951, German analyst Werner Abelshauser concluded that "foreign aid was not crucial in starting the recovery or in keeping it going". The economic recoveries of France, Italy, and Belgium, Cowen argues, began a few months before the flow of US money. Belgium, the country that relied earliest and most heavily on free-market economic policies after its liberation in 1944, experienced swift recovery and avoided the severe housing and food shortages seen in the rest of continental Europe.
Former US Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank Alan Greenspan gives most credit to German Chancellor Ludwig Erhard for Europe's economic recovery. Greenspan writes in his memoir "The Age of Turbulence" that Erhard's economic policies were the most important aspect of postwar Western European recovery, even outweighing the contributions of the Marshall Plan. He states that it was Erhard's reductions in economic regulations that permitted Germany's miraculous recovery, and that these policies also contributed to the recoveries of many other European countries. Its recovery is attributed to traditional economic stimuli, such as increases in investment, fueled by a high savings rate and low taxes. Japan saw a large infusion of US investment during the Korean War.
Noam Chomsky said the Marshall Plan "set the stage for large amounts of private U.S. investment in Europe, establishing the basis for modern transnational corporations".
Alfred Friendly, press aide to the US Secretary of Commerce W. Averell Harriman, wrote a humorous operetta about the Marshall Plan during its first year; one of the lines in the operetta was: "Wines for Sale; will you swap / A little bit of steel for Chateau Neuf du Pape?"
Spanish director Luis García Berlanga co-wrote and directed the movie "Welcome Mr. Marshall!", a comedy about the residents of a small Spanish village who dream about the life of wealth and self-fulfilment the Marshall Plan will bring them. The film highlights the stereotypes held by both the Spanish and the Americans regarding the culture of the other, as well as displays social criticism of 1950s Francoist Spain.
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Mariculture
Mariculture is a specialized branch of aquaculture involving the cultivation of marine organisms for food and other products in the open ocean, an enclosed section of the ocean, or in tanks, ponds or raceways which are filled with seawater. An example of the latter is the farming of marine fish, including finfish and shellfish like prawns, or oysters and seaweed in saltwater ponds. Non-food products produced by mariculture include: fish meal, nutrient agar, jewellery (e.g. cultured pearls), and cosmetics.
Similar to algae cultivation, shellfish can be farmed in multiple ways: on ropes, in bags or cages, or directly on (or within) the intertidal substrate. Shellfish mariculture does not require feed or fertilizer inputs, nor insecticides or antibiotics, making shellfish aquaculture (or 'mariculture') a self-supporting system. Shellfish can also be used in multi-species cultivation techniques, where shellfish can utilize waste generated by higher trophic level organisms.
After trials in 2012, a commercial "sea ranch" was set up in Flinders Bay, Western Australia to raise abalone. The ranch is based on an artificial reef made up of 5000 () separate concrete units called "abitats" (abalone habitats). The abitats can host 400 abalone each. The reef is seeded with young abalone from an onshore hatchery.
The abalone feed on seaweed that has grown naturally on the habitats; with the ecosystem enrichment of the bay also resulting in growing numbers of dhufish, pink snapper, wrasse, Samson fish among other species.
Brad Adams, from the company, has emphasised the similarity to wild abalone and the difference from shore based aquaculture. "We're not aquaculture, we're ranching, because once they're in the water they look after themselves."
Raising marine organisms under controlled conditions in exposed, high-energy ocean environments beyond significant coastal influence, is a relatively new approach to mariculture. Open ocean aquaculture (OOA) uses cages, nets, or long-line arrays that are moored, towed or float freely. Research and commercial open ocean aquaculture facilities are in operation or under development in Panama, Australia, Chile, China, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, and Norway. As of 2004, two commercial open ocean facilities were operating in U.S. waters, raising Threadfin near Hawaii and cobia near Puerto Rico. An operation targeting bigeye tuna recently received final approval. All U.S. commercial facilities are currently sited in waters under state or territorial jurisdiction. The largest deep water open ocean farm in the world is raising cobia 12 km off the northern coast of Panama in highly exposed sites.
Enhanced Stocking (also known as sea ranching) is a Japanese principle based on operant conditioning and the migratory nature of certain species. The fishermen raise hatchlings in a closely knitted net in a harbor, sounding an underwater horn before each feeding. When the fish are old enough they are freed from the net to mature in the open sea. During spawning season, about 80% of these fish return to their birthplace. The fishermen sound the horn and then net those fish that respond.
In seawater pond mariculture, fish are raised in ponds which receive water from the sea. This has the benefit that the nutrition (e.g. microorganisms) present in the seawater can be used. This is a great advantage over traditional fish farms (e.g. sweet water farms) for which the farmers buy feed (which is expensive). Other advantages are that water purification plants may be planted in the ponds to eliminate the buildup of nitrogen, from fecal and other contamination. Also, the ponds can be left unprotected from natural predators, providing another kind of filtering.
Mariculture has rapidly expanded over the last two decades due to new technology, improvements in formulated feeds, greater biological understanding of farmed species, increased water quality within closed farm systems, greater demand for seafood products, site expansion and government interest. As a consequence, mariculture has been subject to some controversy regarding its social and environmental impacts. Commonly identified environmental impacts from marine farms are:
As with most farming practices, the degree of environmental impact depends on the size of the farm, the cultured species, stock density, type of feed, hydrography of the site, and husbandry methods. The adjacent diagram connects these causes and effects.
Mariculture of finfish can require a significant amount of fishmeal or other high protein food sources. Originally, a lot of fishmeal went to waste due to inefficient feeding regimes and poor digestibility of formulated feeds which resulted in poor feed conversion ratios.
In cage culture, several different methods are used for feeding farmed fish – from simple hand feeding to sophisticated computer-controlled systems with automated food dispensers coupled with "in situ" uptake sensors that detect consumption rates. In coastal fish farms, overfeeding primarily leads to increased disposition of detritus on the seafloor (potentially smothering seafloor dwelling invertebrates and altering the physical environment), while in hatcheries and land-based farms, excess food goes to waste and can potentially impact the surrounding catchment and local coastal environment. This impact is usually highly local, and depends significantly on the settling velocity of waste feed and the current velocity (which varies both spatially and temporally) and depth.
The impact of escapees from aquaculture operations depends on whether or not there are wild conspecifics or close relatives in the receiving environment, and whether or not the escapee is reproductively capable. Several different mitigation/prevention strategies are currently employed, from the development of infertile triploids to land-based farms which are completely isolated from any marine environment. Escapees can adversely impact local ecosystems through hybridization and loss of genetic diversity in native stocks, increase negative interactions within an ecosystem (such as predation and competition), disease transmission and habitat changes (from trophic cascades and ecosystem shifts to varying sediment regimes and thus turbidity).
The accidental introduction of invasive species is also of concern. Aquaculture is one of the main vectors for invasives following accidental releases of farmed stocks into the wild. One example is the Siberian sturgeon ("Acipenser baerii") which accidentally escaped from a fish farm into the Gironde Estuary (Southwest France) following a severe storm in December 1999 (5,000 individual fish escaped into the estuary which had never hosted this species before). Molluscan farming is another example whereby species can be introduced to new environments by ‘hitchhiking’ on farmed molluscs. Also, farmed molluscs themselves can become dominate predators and/or competitors, as well as potentially spread pathogens and parasites.
One of the primary concerns with mariculture is the potential for disease and parasite transfer. Farmed stocks are often selectively bred to increase disease and parasite resistance, as well as improving growth rates and quality of products. As a consequence, the genetic diversity within reared stocks decreases with every generation – meaning they can potentially reduce the genetic diversity within wild populations if they escape into those wild populations. Such genetic pollution from escaped aquaculture stock can reduce the wild population's ability to adjust to the changing natural environment. Species grown by mariculture can also harbour diseases and parasites (e.g., lice) which can be introduced to wild populations upon their escape. An example of this is the parasitic sea lice on wild and farmed Atlantic salmon in Canada. Also, non-indigenous species which are farmed may have resistance to, or carry, particular diseases (which they picked up in their native habitats) which could be spread through wild populations if they escape into those wild populations. Such ‘new’ diseases would be devastating for those wild populations because they would have no immunity to them.
With the exception of benthic habitats directly beneath marine farms, most mariculture causes minimal destruction to habitats. However, the destruction of mangrove forests from the farming of shrimps is of concern. Globally, shrimp farming activity is a small contributor to the destruction of mangrove forests; however, locally it can be devastating. Mangrove forests provide rich matrices which support a great deal of biodiversity – predominately juvenile fish and crustaceans. Furthermore, they act as buffering systems whereby they reduce coastal erosion, and improve water quality for in situ animals by processing material and ‘filtering’ sediments.
In addition, nitrogen and phosphorus compounds from food and waste may lead to blooms of phytoplankton, whose subsequent degradation can drastically reduce oxygen levels. If the algae are toxic, fish are killed and shellfish contaminated.
Mariculture development must be sustained by basic and applied research and development in major fields such as nutrition, genetics, system management, product handling, and socioeconomics. One approach is closed systems that have no direct interaction with the local environment. However, investment and operational cost are currently significantly higher than open cages, limiting them to their current role as hatcheries.
Sustainable mariculture promises economic and environmental benefits. Economies of scale imply that ranching can produce fish at lower cost than industrial fishing, leading to better human diets and the gradual elimination of unsustainable fisheries. Fish grown by mariculture are also perceived to be of higher quality than fish raised in ponds or tanks, and offer more diverse choice of species. Consistent supply and quality control has enabled integration in food market channels.
Scientific literature on mariculture can be found in the following journals:
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Memetics
Memetics is the study of information and culture based on an analogy with Darwinian evolution. Proponents describe memetics as an approach to evolutionary models of cultural information transfer. Memetics describes how an idea can propagate successfully, but doesn't necessarily imply a concept is factual. Critics contend the theory is "untested, unsupported or incorrect".
The term meme was coined in Richard Dawkins' 1976 book "The Selfish Gene," but Dawkins later distanced himself from the resulting field of study. Analogous to a gene, the meme was conceived as a "unit of culture" (an idea, belief, pattern of behaviour, etc.) which is "hosted" in the minds of one or more individuals, and which can reproduce itself in the sense of jumping from the mind of one person to the mind of another. Thus what would otherwise be regarded as one individual influencing another to adopt a belief is seen as an idea-replicator reproducing itself in a new host. As with genetics, particularly under a Dawkinsian interpretation, a meme's success may be due to its contribution to the effectiveness of its host.
In his book "The Selfish Gene" (1976), the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins used the term "meme" to describe a unit of human cultural transmission analogous to the gene, arguing that replication also happens in culture, albeit in a different sense. In 1975, Dr. Ted Cloak outlined the "corpuscles of culture" - an inspiring hypothesis that Dawkins referenced. Cultural evolution itself is a much older topic, with a history that dates back at least as far as Darwin's era.
Dawkins (1976) proposed that the meme is a unit of information residing in the brain and is the mutating replicator in human cultural evolution. It is a pattern that can influence its surroundings – that is, it has causal agency – and can propagate. This proposal resulted in debate among sociologists, biologists, and scientists of other disciplines. Dawkins himself did not provide a sufficient explanation of how the replication of units of information in the brain controls human behaviour and ultimately culture, and the principal topic of the book was genetics. Dawkins apparently did not intend to present a comprehensive theory of "memetics" in "The Selfish Gene", but rather coined the term "meme" in a speculative spirit. Accordingly, different researchers came to define the term "unit of information" in different ways.
The evolutionary model of cultural information transfer is based on the concept that units of information, or "memes", have an independent existence, are self-replicating, and are subject to selective evolution through environmental forces. Starting from a proposition put forward in the writings of Richard Dawkins, this model has formed the basis of a new area of study, one that looks at the self-replicating units of culture. It has been proposed that just as memes are analogous to genes, memetics is analogous to genetics.
The modern memetics movement dates from the mid-1980s. A January 1983 "Metamagical Themas" column by Douglas Hofstadter, in "Scientific American", was influential – as was his 1985 book of the same name. "Memeticist" was coined as analogous to "geneticist" – originally in "The Selfish Gene." Later Arel Lucas suggested that the discipline that studies memes and their connections to human and other carriers of them be known as "memetics" by analogy with "genetics". Dawkins' "The Selfish Gene" has been a factor in attracting the attention of people of disparate intellectual backgrounds. Another stimulus was the publication in 1991 of "Consciousness Explained" by Tufts University philosopher Daniel Dennett, which incorporated the meme concept into a theory of the mind. In his 1991 essay "Viruses of the Mind", Richard Dawkins used memetics to explain the phenomenon of religious belief and the various characteristics of organised religions. By then, memetics had also become a theme appearing in fiction (e.g. Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash").
The idea of "language as a virus" had already been introduced by William S. Burroughs as early as 1962 in his book "The Ticket That Exploded", and later in "The Electronic Revolution", published in 1970 in "". Douglas Rushkoff explored the same concept in "Media Virus: Hidden Agendas in Popular Culture" in 1995.
However, the foundation of memetics in its full modern incarnation originated in the publication in 1996 of two books by authors outside the academic mainstream: "Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme" by former Microsoft executive turned motivational speaker and professional poker-player Richard Brodie, and "Thought Contagion: How Belief Spreads Through Society" by Aaron Lynch, a mathematician and philosopher who worked for many years as an engineer at Fermilab. Lynch claimed to have conceived his theory totally independently of any contact with academics in the cultural evolutionary sphere, and apparently was not aware of "The Selfish Gene" until his book was very close to publication.
Around the same time as the publication of the books by Lynch and Brodie the e-journal "Journal of Memetics – Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission" (published electronically from 1997 to 2005) first appeared. It was first hosted by the Centre for Policy Modelling at Manchester Metropolitan University. The e-journal soon became the central point for publication and debate within the nascent memeticist community. (There had been a short-lived paper-based memetics publication starting in 1990, the "Journal of Ideas" edited by Elan Moritz.) In 1999, Susan Blackmore, a psychologist at the University of the West of England, published "The Meme Machine", which more fully worked out the ideas of Dennett, Lynch, and Brodie and attempted to compare and contrast them with various approaches from the cultural evolutionary mainstream, as well as providing novel, and controversial, memetics-based theories for the evolution of language and the human sense of individual selfhood.
The term "meme" derives from the Ancient Greek μιμητής ("mimētḗs"), meaning "imitator, pretender". The similar term "mneme" was used in 1904, by the German evolutionary biologist Richard Semon, best known for his development of the engram theory of memory, in his work "Die mnemischen Empfindungen in ihren Beziehungen zu den Originalempfindungen", translated into English in 1921 as "The Mneme". Until Daniel Schacter published "Forgotten Ideas, Neglected Pioneers: Richard Semon and the Story of Memory" in 2000, Semon's work had little influence, though it was quoted extensively in Erwin Schrödinger’s 1956 Tarner Lecture “Mind and Matter”. Richard Dawkins (1976) apparently coined the word "meme" independently of Semon, writing this:
"'Mimeme' comes from a suitable Greek root, but I want a monosyllable that sounds a bit like 'gene'. I hope my classicist friends will forgive me if I abbreviate mimeme to meme. If it is any consolation, it could alternatively be thought of as being related to 'memory', or to the French word même."
The memetics movement split almost immediately into two. The first group were those who wanted to stick to Dawkins' definition of a meme as "a unit of cultural transmission". Gibron Burchett, another memeticist responsible for helping to research and co-coin the term memetic engineering, along with Leveious Rolando and Larry Lottman, has stated that a meme can be defined, more precisely, as "a unit of cultural information that can be copied, located in the brain". This thinking is more in line with Dawkins' second definition of the meme in his book "The Extended Phenotype". The second group wants to redefine memes as observable cultural artifacts and behaviors. However, in contrast to those two positions, Blackmore does not reject either concept of external or internal memes.
These two schools became known as the "internalists" and the "externalists." Prominent internalists included both Lynch and Brodie; the most vocal externalists included Derek Gatherer, a geneticist from Liverpool John Moores University, and William Benzon, a writer on cultural evolution and music. The main rationale for externalism was that internal brain entities are not observable, and memetics cannot advance as a science, especially a quantitative science, unless it moves its emphasis onto the directly quantifiable aspects of culture. Internalists countered with various arguments: that brain states will eventually be directly observable with advanced technology, that most cultural anthropologists agree that culture is about beliefs and not artifacts, or that artifacts cannot be replicators in the same sense as mental entities (or DNA) are replicators. The debate became so heated that a 1998 Symposium on Memetics, organised as part of the 15th International Conference on Cybernetics, passed a motion calling for an end to definitional debates. McNamara demonstrated in 2011 that functional connectivity profiling using neuroimaging tools enables the observation of the processing of internal memes, "i-memes", in response to external "e-memes".
An advanced statement of the internalist school came in 2002 with the publication of "The Electric Meme", by Robert Aunger, an anthropologist from the University of Cambridge. Aunger also organised a conference in Cambridge in 1999, at which prominent sociologists and anthropologists were able to give their assessment of the progress made in memetics to that date. This resulted in the publication of "Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science", edited by Aunger and with a foreword by Dennett, in 2001.
In 2005, the "Journal of Memetics" ceased publication and published a set of articles on the future of memetics. The website states that although "there was to be a relaunch... after several years nothing has happened". Susan Blackmore has left the University of the West of England to become a freelance science-writer and now concentrates more on the field of consciousness and cognitive science. Derek Gatherer moved to work as a computer programmer in the pharmaceutical industry, although he still occasionally publishes on memetics-related matters. Richard Brodie is now climbing the world professional poker rankings. Aaron Lynch disowned the memetics community and the words "meme" and "memetics" (without disowning the ideas in his book), adopting the self-description "thought contagionist". He died in 2005.
Susan Blackmore (2002) re-stated the definition of meme as: whatever is copied from one person to another person, whether habits, skills, songs, stories, or any other kind of information. Further she said that memes, like genes, are replicators in the sense as defined by Dawkins.
That is, they are information that is copied. Memes are copied by imitation, teaching and other methods. The copies are not perfect: memes are copied with variation; moreover, they compete for space in our memories and for the chance to be copied again. Only some of the variants can survive. The combination of these three elements (copies; variation; competition for survival) forms precisely the condition for Darwinian evolution, and so memes (and hence human cultures) evolve. Large groups of memes that are copied and passed on together are called co-adapted meme complexes, or "memeplexes". In Blackmore's definition, the way that a meme replicates is through imitation. This requires brain capacity to generally imitate a model or selectively imitate the model. Since the process of social learning varies from one person to another, the imitation process cannot be said to be completely imitated. The sameness of an idea may be expressed with different memes supporting it. This is to say that the mutation rate in memetic evolution is extremely high, and mutations are even possible within each and every iteration of the imitation process. It becomes very interesting when we see that a social system composed of a complex network of microinteractions exists, but at the macro level an order emerges to create culture.
Critics contend that some proponents' assertions are "untested, unsupported or incorrect." Luis Benitez-Bribiesca, a critic of memetics, calls it "a pseudoscientific dogma" and "a dangerous idea that poses a threat to the serious study of consciousness and cultural evolution" among other things. As factual criticism, he refers to the lack of a "code script" for memes, as the DNA is for genes, and to the fact that the meme mutation mechanism (i.e., an idea going from one brain to another) is too unstable (low replication accuracy and high mutation rate), which would render the evolutionary process chaotic. This, however, has been demonstrated (e.g. by Daniel C. Dennett, in "Darwin's Dangerous Idea") to not be the case, in fact, due to the existence of self-regulating correction mechanisms (vaguely resembling those of gene transcription) enabled by the redundancy and other properties of most meme expression languages, which do stabilize information transfer. (E.g. spiritual narratives—including music and dance forms—can survive in full detail across any number of generations even in cultures with oral tradition only.) Memes for which stable copying methods are available will inevitably get selected for survival more often than those which can only have unstable mutations, therefore going extinct.
Another criticism comes from semiotics, (e.g., Deacon, Kull) stating that the concept of meme is a primitivized concept of Sign. Meme is thus described in memetics as a sign without its triadic nature. In other words, meme is a degenerate sign, which includes only its ability of being copied. Accordingly, in the broadest sense, the objects of copying are memes, whereas the objects of translation and interpretation are signs.
Mary Midgley criticizes memetics for at least two reasons:
Henry Jenkins, Joshua Green, and Sam Ford, in their book "Spreadable Media" (2013), criticize Dawkins' idea of the meme, writing that "while the idea of the meme is a compelling one, it may not adequately account for how content circulates through participatory culture." The three authors also criticize other interpretations of memetics, especially those which describe memes as "self-replicating", because they ignore the fact that "culture is a human product and replicates through human agency."
Like other critics, Maria Kronfeldner has criticized memetics for being based on an allegedly inaccurate analogy with the gene; alternately, she claims it is "heuristically trivial", being a mere redescription of what is already known without offering any useful novelty.
Research methodologies that apply memetics go by many names: Viral marketing, cultural evolution, the history of ideas, social analytics, and more. Many of these applications do not make reference to the literature on memes directly but are built upon the evolutionary lens of idea propagation that treats semantic units of culture as self-replicating and mutating patterns of information that are assumed to be relevant for scientific study. For example, the field of public relations is filled with attempts to introduce new ideas and alter social discourse. One means of doing this is to design a meme and deploy it through various media channels. One historic example of applied memetics is the PR campaign conducted in 1991 as part of the build-up to the first Gulf War in the United States.
The application of memetics to a difficult complex social system problem, environmental sustainability, has recently been attempted at thwink.org Using meme types and memetic infection in several stock and flow simulation models, Jack Harich has demonstrated several interesting phenomena that are best, and perhaps only, explained by memes. One model, The Dueling Loops of the Political Powerplace, argues that the fundamental reason corruption is the norm in politics is due to an inherent structural advantage of one feedback loop pitted against another. Another model, The Memetic Evolution of Solutions to Difficult Problems, uses memes, the evolutionary algorithm, and the scientific method to show how complex solutions evolve over time and how that process can be improved. The insights gained from these models are being used to engineer memetic solution elements to the sustainability problem.
Another application of memetics in the sustainability space is the crowdfunded Climate Meme Project conducted by Joe Brewer and Balazs Laszlo Karafiath in the spring of 2013. This study was based on a collection of 1000 unique text-based expressions gathered from Twitter, Facebook, and structured interviews with climate activists. The major finding was that the global warming meme is not effective at spreading because it causes emotional duress in the minds of people who learn about it. Five central tensions were revealed in the discourse about [climate change], each of which represents a resonance point through which dialogue can be engaged. The tensions were Harmony/Disharmony (whether or not humans are part of the natural world), Survival/Extinction (envisioning the future as either apocalyptic collapse of civilization or total extinction of the human race), Cooperation/Conflict (regarding whether or not humanity can come together to solve global problems), Momentum/Hesitation (about whether or not we are making progress at the collective scale to address climate change), and Elitism/Heretic (a general sentiment that each side of the debate considers the experts of its opposition to be untrustworthy).
Ben Cullen, in his book "Contagious Ideas", brought the idea of the meme into the discipline of archaeology. He coined the term "Cultural Virus Theory", and used it to try to anchor archaeological theory in a neo-Darwinian paradigm. Archaeological memetics could assist the application of the meme concept to material culture in particular.
Francis Heylighen of the Center Leo Apostel for Interdisciplinary Studies has postulated what he calls "memetic selection criteria". These criteria opened the way to a specialized field of "applied memetics" to find out if these selection criteria could stand the test of quantitative analyses. In 2003 Klaas Chielens carried out these tests in a Masters thesis project on the testability of the selection criteria.
In "Selfish Sounds and Linguistic Evolution", Austrian linguist Nikolaus Ritt has attempted to operationalise memetic concepts and use them for the explanation of long term sound changes and change conspiracies in early English. It is argued that a generalised Darwinian framework for handling cultural change can provide explanations where established, speaker centred approaches fail to do so. The book makes comparatively concrete suggestions about the possible material structure of memes, and provides two empirically rich case studies.
Australian academic S.J. Whitty has argued that project management is a memeplex with the language and stories of its practitioners at its core. This radical approach sees a project and its management as an illusion; a human construct about a collection of feelings, expectations, and sensations, which are created, fashioned, and labeled by the human brain. Whitty's approach requires project managers to consider that the reasons for using project management are not consciously driven to maximize profit, and are encouraged to consider project management as naturally occurring, self-serving, evolving process which shapes organizations for its own purpose.
Swedish political scientist Mikael Sandberg argues against "Lamarckian" interpretations of institutional and technological evolution and studies creative innovation of information technologies in governmental and private organizations in Sweden in the 1990s from a memetic perspective. Comparing the effects of active ("Lamarckian") IT strategy versus user–producer interactivity (Darwinian co-evolution), evidence from Swedish organizations shows that co-evolutionary interactivity is almost four times as strong a factor behind IT creativity as the "Lamarckian" IT strategy.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19770
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List of islands of Michigan
The following is a list of islands of Michigan. Michigan has the second longest coastline of any state after Alaska. Being bordered by four of the five Great Lakes—Erie, Huron, Michigan, and Superior—Michigan also has 64,980 inland lakes and ponds, as well as innumerable rivers, that may contain their own islands included in this list. The majority of the islands are within the Great Lakes. Other islands can also be found within other waterways of the Great Lake system, including Lake St. Clair, St. Clair River, Detroit River, and St. Marys River.
The largest of all the islands is Isle Royale in Lake Superior, which, in addition to its waters and other surrounding islands, is organized as Isle Royale National Park. Isle Royale itself is . The most populated island is Grosse Ile with approximately 10,000 residents, located in the Detroit River about south of Detroit. The majority of Michigan's islands are uninhabited and very small. Some of these otherwise unusable islands have been used for the large number of Michigan's lighthouses to aid in shipping throughout the Great Lakes, while others have been set aside as nature reserves. Many islands in Michigan have the same name, even some that are in the same municipality and body of water, such as Gull, Long, or Round islands.
Only Monroe County has territory in the westernmost portion of Lake Erie, which has a surface elevation of . The islands in the southern portion of the county are part of the North Maumee Bay Archeological District of the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge. Turtle Island is the only island in the state of Michigan that is shared by another state. This remote and tiny island is cut in half and shared with Ohio.
Lake Huron is the second largest of the Great Lakes (after Lake Superior) with a surface area of . Michigan is the only U.S. state to border Lake Huron, while the portion of the lake on the other side of the international border belongs to the Canadian province of Ontario. The vast majority of Michigan's islands in Lake Huron are centered around Drummond Island in the northernmost portion of the state's lake territory. Drummond Island is the largest of Michigan's islands in Lake Huron and is the second largest Michigan island after Lake Superior's Isle Royale. Another large group of islands is the Les Cheneaux Islands archipelago, which itself contains dozens of small islands. Many of the lake's islands are very small and uninhabited.
As the most popular tourist destination in the state, Mackinac Island is the most well known of Lake Huron's islands. Drummond Island is the most populous of Michigan's islands in Lake Huron, with a population of 992 at the 2000 census. While Mackinac Island had a population of only about 500, there are thousands more seasonal workers and tourists during the summer months.
Michigan only has islands in Lake Michigan in the northern portion of the lake. There are no islands in the southern half of Lake Michigan. The largest and most populated of Michigan's islands in Lake Michigan is Beaver Island at and 551 residents. Some of the smaller islands surrounding Beaver Island are part of the larger Michigan Islands National Wildlife Refuge.
Lake Superior is the largest of the Great Lakes, and the coastline is sparsely populated. At , Isle Royale is the largest Michigan island and is the center of Isle Royale National Park, which itself contains over 450 islands. The following is a list of islands in Lake Superior that are "not" part of Isle Royale National Park. For those islands, see the list of islands in Isle Royale National Park.
Lake St. Clair connects Lake Huron and Lake Erie through the St. Clair River in the north and the Detroit River in the south. At , it is one of the largest non-Great Lakes in the United States, but it only contains a small number of islands near the mouth of the St. Clair River, where all of the following islands are located. The largest of these islands is Harsens Island, and all the islands are in Clay Township in St. Clair County.
The Detroit River runs for and connects Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie. For its entire length, it carries the international border between the United States and Canada. Some islands belong to Ontario in Canada and are not included in the list below. All islands on the American side belong to Wayne County. Portions of the southern portion of the river serve as wildlife refuges as part of the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge. The largest and most populous island is Grosse Ile at and a population of around 10,000. Most of the islands are around and closely connected to Grosse Ile.
The St. Marys River connects Lake Superior and Lake Huron at the easternmost point of the Upper Peninsula. It carries the international border throughout its length, and some of the islands belong to neighboring Ontario. The largest of Michigan's islands in the river are Sugar Island and Neebish Island. Wider portions of the river are designated as Lake George, Lake Nicolet, and the Munuscong Lake. The whole length of the Michigan portion of the river is part of Chippewa County.
Michigan has numerous inland lakes and rivers that also contain their own islands. The following also lists the body of water in which these islands are located. Five islands below (* and highlighted in green) are actually islands within an island; they are contained within inland lakes in Isle Royale.
Grand Lake is a large lake in Presque Isle County. While it is not the largest inland lake in Michigan, it does contain the most inland islands that are officially named. At its shortest distance, it is located less than from Lake Huron, but the two are not connected. Grand Lake contains 14 islands, of which Grand Island is by far the largest.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19780
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List of governors of Michigan
The Governor of Michigan is the head of the executive branch of Michigan's state government and serves as the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has a duty to enforce state laws; the power to either approve or veto appropriation bills passed by the Michigan Legislature; the power to convene the legislature; and the power to grant pardons, except in cases of impeachment. He or she is also empowered to reorganize the executive branch of the state government.
Michigan was originally part of French and British holdings, and administered by their colonial governors. After becoming part of the United States, numerous areas of what is today Michigan were originally part of the Northwest Territory, Indiana Territory and Illinois Territory, and administered by territorial governors. In 1805, the Michigan Territory was created, and five men served as territorial governors, until Michigan was granted statehood in 1837. Forty-eight individuals have held the position of state governor. The first female governor, Jennifer Granholm, served from 2003 to 2011.
After Michigan gained statehood, governors held the office for a 2-year term, until the 1963 Michigan Constitution changed the term to 4 years. The number of times an individual could hold the office was unlimited until a 1992 constitutional amendment imposed a lifetime term limit of 2 4-year governorships. The longest-serving governor in Michigan's history was William Milliken, who was promoted from lieutenant governor after Governor George W. Romney resigned, then was elected to three further successive terms. The only governors to serve non-consecutive terms were John S. Barry and Frank Fitzgerald.
Michigan was part of colonial New France until the Treaty of 1763 transferred ownership to the Kingdom of Great Britain. During this time, it was governed by the Lieutenants General of New France until 1627, the Governors of New France from 1627 to 1663, and the Governors General of New France until the transfer to Great Britain. The 1783 Treaty of Paris ceded the territory that is now Michigan to the United States as part of the end of the Revolutionary War, but British troops were not removed from the area until 1796. During the British ownership, their governors administrated the area as part of the Canadian territorial holdings.
Prior to becoming its own territory, parts of Michigan were administered by the governors of the Northwest Territory, the governors of the Indiana Territory and the governors of the Illinois Territory. On June 30, 1805, the Territory of Michigan was created, with General William Hull as the first territorial governor.
Michigan was admitted to the Union on January 26, 1837. The original 1835 Constitution of Michigan provided for the election of a governor and a lieutenant governor every 2 years. The fourth and current constitution of 1963 increased this term to four years. There was no term limit on governors until a constitutional amendment effective in 1993 limited governors to two terms.
Should the office of governor become vacant, the lieutenant governor becomes governor, followed in order of succession by the Secretary of State and the Attorney General. Prior to the current constitution, the duties of the office would devolve upon the lieutenant governor, without that person actually becoming governor. The term begins at noon on January 1 of the year following the election. Prior to the 1963 constitution, the governor and lieutenant governor were elected through separate votes, allowing them to be from different parties. In 1963, this was changed, so that votes are cast jointly for a governor and lieutenant governor of the same party.
Several governors also held other high positions within the state and federal governments. Eight governors served as U.S. House of Representatives members, while seven held positions in the U.S. Senate, all representing Michigan. Others have served as ambassadors, U.S. Cabinet members, and state and federal Supreme Court justices.
As of , there are four living former governors of Michigan. The most recent death of a former governor was that of William Milliken (served 1969-83) on October 18, 2019, aged 97. Milliken was also the most recently serving governor of Michigan to have died. The state's living former governors are:
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19808
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Moses Amyraut
Moïse Amyraut, Latin Moyses Amyraldus (Bourgueil, September 1596 – January 8, 1664), in English texts often Moses Amyraut, was a French Huguenot, Reformed theologian and metaphysician. He is perhaps most noted for his modifications to Calvinist theology regarding the nature of Christ's atonement, which is referred to as Amyraldism or Amyraldianism.
Born at Bourgueil, in the valley of the Changeon in the province of Anjou, his father was a lawyer, and, preparing Moses for his own profession, sent him, on the completion of his study of the humanities at Orléans to the university of Poitiers.
At the university he took the degree of licentiate (BA) of laws. On his way home from the university he passed through Saumur, and, having visited the pastor of the Protestant church there, was introduced by him to Philippe de Mornay, governor of the city. Struck with young Amyraut's ability and culture, they both urged him to change from law to theology. His father advised him to revise his philological and philosophical studies, and read over Calvin's "Institutions," before finally determining a course. He did so, and decided for theology.
He moved to the Academy of Saumur and studied under John Cameron, who ultimately regarded him as his greatest scholar. He had a brilliant course, and was in due time licensed as a minister of the French Protestant Church. The contemporary civil wars and excitements hindered his advancement. His first church was in Saint-Aignan, in the province of Maine. There he remained two years. Jean Daillé, who moved to Paris, advised the church at Saumur to secure Amyraut as his successor, praising him "as above himself." The university of Saumur at the same time had fixed its eyes on him as professor of theology. The great churches of Paris and Rouen also contended for him, and to win him sent their deputies to the provincial synod of Anjou.
Amyraut had left the choice to the synod. He was appointed to Saumur in 1633, and to the professor's chair along with the pastorate. On the occasion of his inauguration he maintained for thesis "De Sacerdotio Christi". His co-professors were Louis Cappel and Josué de la Place, who also were Cameron's pupils and lifelong friends, who collaborated in the "Theses Salmurienses", a collection of theses propounded by candidates in theology prefaced by the inaugural addresses of the three professors. Amyraut soon gave to French Protestantism a new direction.
In 1631 he published his "Traité des religions"; and from this year onward he was a foremost man in the church. Chosen to represent the provincial synod of Anjou, Touraine and Maine at the 1631 , he was appointed as orator to present to the king "The Copy of their Complaints and Grievances for the Infractions and Violations of the Edict of Nantes".
Previous deputies had addressed the king on their bent knees, whereas the representatives of the Catholics had been permitted to stand. Amyraut consented to be orator only if the assembly authorized him to stand. There was intense resistance. Cardinal Richelieu himself, preceded by lesser dignitaries, condescended to visit Amyraut privately, to persuade him to kneel; but Amyraut held resolutely to his point and carried it. His "oration" on this occasion, which was immediately published in the French "Mercure", remains a striking landmark in the history of French Protestantism. During his absence on this matter the assembly debated "whether the Lutherans who desired it, might be admitted into communion with the Reformed Churches of France at the Lord's Table." It was decided in the affirmative previous to his return; but he approved with astonishing eloquence, and thereafter was ever in the front rank in maintaining intercommunion between all churches holding the main doctrines of the Reformation.
Pierre Bayle recounts the title-pages of no fewer than thirty-two books of which Amyraut was the author. These show that he took part in all the great controversies on predestination and Arminianism which then so agitated and harassed all Europe. Substantially he held fast the Calvinism of his preceptor Cameron; but, like Richard Baxter in England, by his breadth and charity he exposed himself to all manner of misconstruction. In 1634 he published his "Traité de la predestination", in which he tried to mitigate the harsh features of predestination by his "Universalismus hypotheticus". God, he taught, predestines all men to happiness on condition of their having faith. This gave rise to a charge of heresy, of which he was acquitted at the national synod held at Alençon in 1637, and presided over by Benjamin Basnage (1580–1652). The charge was brought up again at the national synod of Charenton in 1644, when he was again acquitted. A third attack at the synod of Loudun in 1659 met with no better success. The university of Saumur became the university of French Protestantism.
Amyraut had as many as a hundred students in attendance upon his lectures. One of these was William Penn, who would later go on to found the Pennsylvania Colony in America based in part on Amyraut's notions of religious freedom . Another historic part filled by Amyraut was in the negotiations originated by Pierre le Gouz de la Berchère (1600–1653), first president of the "parlement" of Grenoble, when exiled to Saumur, for a reconciliation and reunion of the Catholics of France with the French Protestants. Very large were the concessions made by Richelieu in his personal interviews with Amyraut; but, as with the Worcester House negotiations in England between the Church of England and nonconformists, they inevitably fell through. On all sides the statesmanship and eloquence of Amyraut were conceded. His "De l'elevation de la foy et de l'abaissement de la raison en la creance des mysteres de la religion" (1641) gave him early a high place as a metaphysician. Exclusive of his controversial writings, he left behind him a very voluminous series of practical evangelical books, which have long remained the "fireside" favourites of the peasantry of French Protestantism. Amongst these are "Estat des fideles apres la mort"; "Sur l'oraison dominicale"; "Du merite des oeuvres"; "Traité de la justification"; and paraphrases of books of the Old and New Testament. His closing years were weakened by a severe fall he met with in 1657. He died on 18 January 1664.
There were a number of theologians who defended Calvinistic orthodoxy against Amyraut and Saumur, including Friedrich Spanheim (1600–1649) and Francis Turretin (1623–1687). Ultimately, the Helvetic Consensus was drafted to counteract the theology of Saumur and Amyraldism.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19809
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Murray River
The Murray River (or River Murray) (Ngarrindjeri: "Millewa", Yorta Yorta: "Tongala") is Australia's longest river, at in length. The Murray rises in the Australian Alps, draining the western side of Australia's highest mountains, and then meanders across Australia's inland plains, forming the border between the states of New South Wales and Victoria as it flows to the northwest into South Australia. It turns south at Morgan for its final , reaching the ocean at Lake Alexandrina.
The water of the Murray flows through several terminal lakes that fluctuate in salinity (and were often fresh until recent decades) including Lake Alexandrina and The Coorong before emptying through the Murray Mouth into the southeastern portion of the Indian Ocean, often referenced on Australian maps as the Southern Ocean, near Goolwa. Despite discharging considerable volumes of water at times, particularly before the advent of large-scale river regulation, the mouth has always been comparatively small and shallow.
As of 2010, the Murray River system receives 58 percent of its natural flow. It is perhaps Australia's most important irrigated region, and it is widely known as the food bowl of the nation.
The Murray River forms part of the long combined Murray–Darling river system which drains most of inland Victoria, New South Wales, and southern Queensland. Overall the catchment area is one-seventh of Australia's total land mass. The Murray carries only a small fraction of the water of comparably-sized rivers in other parts of the world, and with a great annual variability of its flow. In its natural state it has even been known to dry up completely during extreme droughts, although that is extremely rare, with only two or three instances of this occurring since official record keeping began.
The Murray River makes up most of the border between the Australian states of Victoria and New South Wales. Where it does, the border is the top of the bank of the Victorian side of the river (i.e., none of the river itself is actually in Victoria). This was determined in a 1980 ruling by the High Court of Australia, which settled the question as to which state had jurisdiction in the unlawful death of a man who was fishing by the river's edge on the Victorian side of the river. This boundary definition can be ambiguous, since the river changes its course over time, and some of the river banks have been modified.
West of the line of longitude 141°E, the river continues as the border between Victoria and South Australia for approximately , where this is the only stretch where a state border runs down the middle of the river. This was due to a miscalculation during the 1840s, when the border was originally surveyed. Past this point, the Murray River is entirely within the state of South Australia.
The following major settlements are located along the course of the river, with population figures from the 2011 Census:
The Murray River (and associated tributaries) support a variety of river life adapted to its vagaries. This includes a variety of native fish such as the famous Murray cod, trout cod, golden perch, Macquarie perch, silver perch, eel-tailed catfish, Australian smelt, and western carp gudgeon, and other aquatic species like the Murray short-necked turtle, Murray River crayfish, broad-clawed yabbies, and the large clawed "Macrobrachium" shrimp, as well as aquatic species more widely distributed through southeastern Australia such as common longnecked turtles, common yabbies, the small claw-less "paratya" shrimp, water rats, and platypus. The Murray River also supports fringing corridors and forests of the river red gum.
The health of the Murray River has declined significantly since European settlement, particularly due to river regulation, and much of its aquatic life including native fish are now declining, rare or endangered. Recent extreme droughts (2000–07) have put significant stress on river red gum forests, with mounting concern over their long-term survival. The Murray has also flooded on occasion, the most significant of which was the flood of 1956, which inundated many towns on the lower Murray and which lasted for up to six months.
Introduced fish species such as carp, "gambusia", weather loach, redfin perch, brown trout, and rainbow trout have also had serious negative effects on native fish, while carp have contributed to environmental degradation of the Murray River and tributaries by destroying aquatic plants and permanently raising turbidity. In some segments of the Murray River, carp have become the only species found.
Between 2.5 and 0.5 million years ago the Murray River terminated in a vast freshwater lake called Lake Bungunnia. Lake Bungunnia was formed by earth movements that blocked the Murray River near Swan Reach during this period. At its maximum extent Lake Bungunnia covered , extending to near the Menindee Lakes in the north and to near Boundary Bend on the Murray in the south. The draining of Lake Bungunnia occurred approximately 600,000 years ago.
Deep clays deposited by the lake are evident in cliffs around Chowilla in South Australia. Considerably higher rainfall would have been required to keep such a lake full; the draining of Lake Bungunnia appears to mark the end of a wet phase in the history of the Murray-Darling Basin and the onset of widespread arid conditions similar to today. A species of "Neoceratodus" lungfish existed in Lake Bungunnia (McKay & Eastburn, 1990); today "Neoceratodus" lungfish are only found in several Queensland rivers.
The noted Barmah River Red Gum Forests owe their existence to the Cadell Fault. About 25,000 years ago, displacement occurred along the Cadell fault, raising the eastern edge of the fault, which runs north-south, above the floodplain. This created a complex series of events. A section of the original Murray River channel immediately behind the fault was abandoned, and it exists today as an empty channel known as Green Gully. The Goulburn River was dammed by the southern end of the fault to create a natural lake.
The Murray River flowed to the north around the Cadell Fault, creating the channel of the Edward River which exists today and through which much of the Murray River's waters still flow. Then the natural dam on the Goulburn River failed, the lake drained, and the Murray River avulsed to the south and started to flow through the smaller Goulburn River channel, creating "The Barmah Choke" and "The Narrows" (where the river channel is unusually narrow), before entering into the proper Murray River channel again.
This complex series of events, however, diverts attention from the primary result of the Cadell Fault – that the west-flowing water of the Murray River strikes the north-south fault and diverts both north and south around the fault in the two main channels (Edward and ancestral Goulburn) as well as a fan of small streams, and regularly floods a large amount of low-lying country in the area. These conditions are perfect for River Red Gums, which rapidly formed forests in the area. Thus the displacement of the Cadell Fault 25,000 BP led directly to the formation of the famous Barmah River Red Gum Forests.
The Barmah Choke and The Narrows mean the amount of water that can travel down this part of the Murray River is restricted. In times of flood and high irrigation flows the majority of the water, in addition to flooding the Red Gum forests, actually travels through the Edward River channel. The Murray River has not had enough flow power to naturally enlarge The Barmah Choke and The Narrows to increase the amount of water they can carry.
The Cadell Fault is quite noticeable as a continuous, low, earthen embankment as one drives into Barmah from the west, although to the untrained eye it may appear man-made.
The Murray Mouth is the point at which the Murray River empties into the sea, and the interaction between its shallow, shifting and variable currents and the open sea can be complex and unpredictable. During the peak period of Murray River commerce (roughly 1855 to 1920), it presented a major impediment to the passage of goods and produce between Adelaide and the Murray settlements, and many vessels foundered or were wrecked there.
Since the early 2000s, dredging machines have operated at the Murray Mouth, moving sand from the channel to maintain a minimal flow from the sea and into the Coorong's lagoon system. Without the 24-hour dredging, the mouth would silt up and close, cutting the supply of fresh sea-water into the Coorong, which would then warm up, stagnate and die.
Being one of the major river systems on one of the driest continents on Earth, the Murray has significant cultural relevance to Aboriginal Australians. According to the peoples of Lake Alexandrina, the Murray was created by the tracks of the Great Ancestor, Ngurunderi, as he pursued Pondi, the Murray Cod. The chase originated in the interior of New South Wales. Ngurunderi pursued the fish (who, like many totem animals in Aboriginal myths, is often portrayed as a man) on rafts (or "lala") made from red gums and continually launched spears at his target. But Pondi was a wily prey and carved a weaving path, carving out the river's various tributaries. Ngurunderi was forced to beach his rafts, and often create new ones as he changed from reach to reach of the river.
At Kobathatang, Ngurunderi finally got lucky and struck Pondi in the tail with a spear. However, the shock to the fish was so great it launched him forward in a straight line to a place called Peindjalang, near Tailem Bend. Eager to rectify his failure to catch his prey, the hunter and his two wives (sometimes the escaped sibling wives of Waku and Kanu) hurried on, and took positions high on the cliff on which Tailem Bend now stands. They sprung an ambush on Pondi only to fail again. Ngurunderi set off in pursuit again but lost his prey as Pondi dived into Lake Alexandrina. Ngurunderi and his women settled on the shore, only to suffer bad luck with fishing, being plagued by a water fiend known as Muldjewangk. They later moved to a more suitable spot at the site of present-day Ashville. The twin summits of Mount Misery are supposed to be the remnants of his rafts, they are known as "Lalangengall" or "the two watercraft".
This story of a hunter pursuing a Murray cod that carved out the Murray persists in numerous forms in various language groups that inhabit the enormous area spanned by the Murray system. The Wotojobaluk people of Victoria tell of Totyerguil from the area now known as Swan Hill who ran out of spears while chasing Otchtout the cod.
The first Europeans to encounter the river were Hamilton Hume and William Hovell, who crossed the river where Albury now stands in 1824: Hume named it the "Hume River" after his father. In 1830, Captain Charles Sturt reached the river after travelling down its tributary the Murrumbidgee River and named it the "Murray River" in honour of the then British Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, Sir George Murray, not realising it was the same river that Hume and Hovell had encountered further upstream.
Sturt continued down the remaining length of the Murray to finally reach Lake Alexandrina and the river's mouth. The area of the Murray Mouth was explored more thoroughly by Captain Collet Barker in 1831.
The first three settlers on the Murray River are known to have been James Collins Hawker (explorer and surveyor) along with E. J. Eyre (explorer and later Governor of Jamaica) plus E. B. Scott (onetime superintendent of Yatala Labour Prison). Hawker is known to have sold his share in the Bungaree Station which he founded with his brothers, and relocated alongside the Murray at a site near Moorundie
In 1852, Francis Cadell, in preparation for the launch of his steamer service, explored the river in a canvas boat, travelling downstream from Swan Hill.
In 1858, while acting as Minister of Land and Works for New South Wales, Irish nationalist and founder of Young Ireland, Charles Gavan Duffy, founded Carlyle Township on the Murray River, a township named after his close friend, Scottish historian and essayist Thomas Carlyle. Included in the township were "Jane Street," named in honor of Carlyle's wife Jane Carlyle and "Stuart-Mill Street" in honor of political philosopher John Stuart Mill (Duffy, 1892, "Conversations with Carlyle", pp. 202–203).
In 1858, the Government Zoologist, William Blandowski, along with Gerard Krefft, explored the lower reaches of the Murray and Darling rivers, compiling a list of birds and mammals.
George "Chinese" Morrison, then aged 18, navigated the river by canoe from Wodonga to its mouth, in 65 days, completing the 1,555-mile (2,503 km) journey in January 1881.
The lack of an estuary means that shipping cannot enter the Murray from the sea. However, in the 19th century the river supported a substantial commercial trade using shallow-draft paddle steamers, the first trips being made by two boats from South Australia on the spring flood of 1853. The "Lady Augusta", captained by Francis Cadell, reached Swan Hill while another, "Mary Ann", captained by William Randell, made it as far as Moama (near Echuca). In 1855 a steamer carrying gold-mining supplies reached Albury but Echuca was the usual turn-around point, though small boats continued to link with up-river ports such as Tocumwal, Wahgunya and Albury.
The arrival of steamboat transport was welcomed by pastoralists who had been suffering from a shortage of transport due to the demands of the gold fields. By 1860 a dozen steamers were operating in the high water season along the Murray and its tributaries. Once the railway reached Echuca in 1864, the bulk of the woolclip from the Riverina was transported via river to Echuca and then south to Melbourne.
The Murray was plagued by "snags", fallen trees submerged in the water, and considerable efforts were made to clear the river of these threats to shipping by using barges equipped with steam-driven winches. In recent times, efforts have been made to restore many of these snags by placing dead gum trees back into the river. The primary purpose of this is to provide habitat for fish species whose breeding grounds and shelter were eradicated by the removal of the snags.
The volume and value of river trade made Echuca Victoria's second port and in the decade from 1874 it underwent considerable expansion. By this time up to thirty steamers and a similar number of barges were working the river in season. River transport began to decline once the railways touched the Murray at numerous points. The unreliable levels made it impossible for boats to compete with the rail and later road transport. However, the river still carries pleasure boats along its entire length.
Today, most traffic on the river is recreational. Small private boats are used for water skiing and fishing. Houseboats are common, both commercial for hire and privately owned. There are a number of both historic paddle steamers and newer boats offering cruises ranging from half an hour to 5 days.
The Murray River has been a significant barrier to land-based travel and trade. Many of the ports for transport of goods along the Murray have also developed as places to cross the river, either by bridge or ferry. The first bridge to cross the Murray, which was built in 1869, is in the town of Murray Bridge, formerly called Edwards Crossing. Tolls applied on South Australian ferries until abolished in November 1961.
Small-scale pumping plants began drawing water from the Murray in the 1850s and the first high-volume plant was constructed at Mildura in 1887. The introduction of pumping stations along the river promoted an expansion of farming and led ultimately to the development of irrigation areas (including the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area).
In 1915, the three Murray states – New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia – signed the River Murray Agreement which proposed the construction of storage reservoirs in the river's headwaters as well as at Lake Victoria near the South Australian border. Along the intervening stretch of the river a series of locks and weirs were built. These were originally proposed to support navigation even in times of low water, but riverborne transport was already declining due to improved highway and railway systems.
Four large reservoirs were built along the Murray. In addition to Lake Victoria (completed late 1920s), these are Lake Hume near Albury–Wodonga (completed 1936), Lake Mulwala at Yarrawonga (completed 1939), and Lake Dartmouth, which is actually on the Mitta Mitta River upstream of Lake Hume (completed 1979). The Murray also receives water from the complex dam and pipeline system of the Snowy Mountains Scheme. An additional reservoir was proposed in the 1960s at Chowilla Dam which was to have been built in South Australia and would have flooded land mostly in Victoria and New South Wales. This reservoir was cancelled in favour of building Dartmouth Dam due to costs and concerns relating to increased salinity.
From 1935 to 1940 a series of barrages was built near the Murray Mouth to stop seawater egress into the lower part of the river during low flow periods. They are the Goolwa Barrage, located at , Mundoo Channel Barrage at , Boundary Creek Barrage at , Ewe Island Barrage at , and Tauwitchere Barrage at .
These dams inverted the patterns of the river's natural flow from the original winter-spring flood and summer-autumn dry to the present low level through winter and higher during summer. These changes ensured the availability of water for irrigation and made the Murray Valley Australia's most productive agricultural region, but have seriously disrupted the life cycles of many ecosystems both inside and outside the river, and the irrigation has led to dryland salinity that now threatens the agricultural industries.
The disruption of the river's natural flow, runoff from agriculture, and the introduction of pest species like the European carp has led to serious environmental damage along the river's length and to concerns that the river will be unusably salty in the medium to long term – a serious problem given that the Murray supplies 40 percent of the water supply for Adelaide. Efforts to alleviate the problems proceed but disagreement between various groups stalls progress.
In 2006, the state government of South Australia revealed its plan to investigate the construction of the controversial Wellington Weir.
Lock 1 was completed near Blanchetown in 1922. Torrumbarry weir downstream of Echuca began operating in December 1923. Of the numerous locks that were proposed, only thirteen were completed; Locks 1 to 11 on the stretch downstream of Mildura, Lock 15 at Euston and Lock 26 at Torrumbarry. Construction of the remaining weirs purely for navigation purposes was abandoned in 1934. The last lock to be completed was Lock 15, in 1937.
Lock 11, just downstream of Mildura, creates a long lock pool which aided irrigation pumping from Mildura and Red Cliffs.
Each lock has a navigable passage next to it through the weir, which is opened during periods of high river flow, when there is too much water for the lock. The weirs can be completely removed, and the locks completely covered by water during flood conditions. Lock 11 is unique in that the lock was built inside a bend of the river, with the weir in the bend itself. A channel was dug to the lock, creating an island between it and the weir. The weir is also of a different design, being dragged out of the river during high flow, rather than lifted out.
Major tributaries
Population centres
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19811
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Project Mercury
Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Union. Taken over from the US Air Force by the newly created civilian space agency NASA, it conducted twenty uncrewed developmental flights (some using animals), and six successful flights by astronauts. The program, which took its name from Roman mythology, cost $ adjusted for inflation. The astronauts were collectively known as the "Mercury Seven", and each spacecraft was given a name ending with a "7" by its pilot.
The Space Race began with the 1957 launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1. This came as a shock to the American public, and led to the creation of NASA to expedite existing US space exploration efforts, and place most of them under civilian control. After the successful launch of the Explorer 1 satellite in 1958, crewed spaceflight became the next goal. The Soviet Union put the first human, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, into a single orbit aboard Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961. Shortly after this, on May 5, the US launched its first astronaut, Alan Shepard, on a suborbital flight. Soviet Gherman Titov followed with a day-long orbital flight in August 1961. The US reached its orbital goal on February 20, 1962, when John Glenn made three orbits around the Earth. When Mercury ended in May 1963, both nations had sent six people into space, but the Soviets led the US in total time spent in space.
The Mercury space capsule was produced by McDonnell Aircraft, and carried supplies of water, food and oxygen for about one day in a pressurized cabin. Mercury flights were launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, on launch vehicles modified from the Redstone and Atlas D missiles. The capsule was fitted with a launch escape rocket to carry it safely away from the launch vehicle in case of a failure. The flight was designed to be controlled from the ground via the Manned Space Flight Network, a system of tracking and communications stations; back-up controls were outfitted on board. Small retrorockets were used to bring the spacecraft out of its orbit, after which an ablative heat shield protected it from the heat of atmospheric reentry. Finally, a parachute slowed the craft for a water landing. Both astronaut and capsule were recovered by helicopters deployed from a US Navy ship.
The Mercury project gained popularity, and its missions were followed by millions on radio and TV around the world. Its success laid the groundwork for Project Gemini, which carried two astronauts in each capsule and perfected space docking maneuvers essential for crewed lunar landings in the subsequent Apollo program announced a few weeks after the first crewed Mercury flight.
Project Mercury was officially approved on October 7, 1958 and publicly announced on December 17. Originally called Project Astronaut, President Dwight Eisenhower felt that gave too much attention to the pilot. Instead, the name "Mercury" was chosen from classical mythology, which had already lent names to rockets like the Greek "Atlas" and Roman "Jupiter" for the SM-65 and PGM-19 missiles. It absorbed military projects with the same aim, such as the Air Force Man in Space Soonest.
Following the end of World War II, a nuclear arms race evolved between the US and the Soviet Union (USSR). Since the USSR did not have bases in the western hemisphere from which to deploy bomber planes, Joseph Stalin decided to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles, which drove a missile race. The rocket technology in turn enabled both sides to develop Earth-orbiting satellites for communications, and gathering weather data and intelligence. Americans were shocked when the Soviet Union placed the first satellite into orbit in October 1957, leading to a growing fear that the US was falling into a "missile gap". A month later, the Soviets launched Sputnik 2, carrying a dog into orbit. Though the animal was not recovered alive, it was obvious their goal was human spaceflight. Unable to disclose details of military space projects, President Eisenhower ordered the creation of a civilian space agency in charge of civilian and scientific space exploration. Based on the federal research agency National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), it was named the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). It achieved its first goal, an American satellite in space, in 1958. The next goal was to put a man there.
The limit of space (also known as the Kármán line) was defined at the time as a minimum altitude of , and the only way to reach it was by using rocket-powered boosters. This created risks for the pilot, including explosion, high g-forces and vibrations during lift off through a dense atmosphere, and temperatures of more than from air compression during reentry.
In space, pilots would require pressurized chambers or space suits to supply fresh air. While there, they would experience weightlessness, which could potentially cause disorientation. Further potential risks included radiation and micrometeoroid strikes, both of which would normally be absorbed in the atmosphere. All seemed possible to overcome: experience from satellites suggested micrometeoroid risk was negligible, and experiments in the early 1950s with simulated weightlessness, high g-forces on humans, and sending animals to the limit of space, all suggested potential problems could be overcome by known technologies. Finally, reentry was studied using the nuclear warheads of ballistic missiles, which demonstrated a blunt, forward-facing heat shield could solve the problem of heating.
T. Keith Glennan had been appointed the first Administrator of NASA, with Hugh L. Dryden (last Director of NACA) as his Deputy, at the creation of the agency on October 1, 1958. Glennan would report to the president through the National Aeronautics and Space Council. The group responsible for Project Mercury was NASA's Space Task Group, and the goals of the program were to orbit a crewed spacecraft around Earth, investigate the pilot's ability to function in space, and to recover both pilot and spacecraft safely. Existing technology and off-the-shelf equipment would be used wherever practical, the simplest and most reliable approach to system design would be followed, and an existing launch vehicle would be employed, together with a progressive test program. Spacecraft requirements included: a launch escape system to separate the spacecraft and its occupant from the launch vehicle in case of impending failure; attitude control for orientation of the spacecraft in orbit; a retrorocket system to bring the spacecraft out of orbit; drag braking blunt body for atmospheric reentry; and landing on water. To communicate with the spacecraft during an orbital mission, an extensive communications network had to be built. In keeping with his desire to keep from giving the US space program an overtly military flavor, President Eisenhower at first hesitated to give the project top national priority (DX rating under the Defense Production Act), which meant that Mercury had to wait in line behind military projects for materials; however, this rating was granted in May 1959, a little more than a year and a half after Sputnik was launched.
Twelve companies bid to build the Mercury spacecraft on a $20 million ($ adjusted for inflation) contract. In January 1959, McDonnell Aircraft Corporation was chosen to be prime contractor for the spacecraft. Two weeks earlier, North American Aviation, based in Los Angeles, was awarded a contract for Little Joe, a small rocket to be used for development of the launch escape system. The World Wide Tracking Network for communication between the ground and spacecraft during a flight was awarded to the Western Electric Company. Redstone rockets for suborbital launches were manufactured in Huntsville, Alabama by the Chrysler Corporation and Atlas rockets by Convair in San Diego, California. For crewed launches, the Atlantic Missile Range at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida was made available by the USAF. This was also the site of the Mercury Control Center while the computing center of the communication network was in Goddard Space Center, Maryland. Little Joe rockets were launched from Wallops Island, Virginia. Astronaut training took place at Langley Research Center in Virginia, Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory in Cleveland, Ohio, and Naval Air Development Center Johnsville in Warminster, PA. Langley wind tunnels together with a rocket sled track at Holloman Air Force Base at Alamogordo, New Mexico were used for aerodynamic studies. Both Navy and Air Force aircraft were made available for the development of the spacecraft's landing system, and Navy ships and Navy and Marine Corps helicopters were made available for recovery. South of Cape Canaveral the town of Cocoa Beach boomed. From here, 75,000 people watched the first American orbital flight being launched in 1962.
The Mercury spacecraft's principal designer was Maxime Faget, who started research for human spaceflight during the time of the NACA. It was long and wide; with the launch escape system added, the overall length was . With of habitable volume, the capsule was just large enough for a single crew member. Inside were 120 controls: 55 electrical switches, 30 fuses and 35 mechanical levers. The heaviest spacecraft, Mercury-Atlas 9, weighed fully loaded. Its outer skin was made of René 41, a nickel alloy able to withstand high temperatures.
The spacecraft was cone shaped, with a neck at the narrow end. It had a convex base, which carried a heat shield (Item 2 in the diagram below) consisting of an aluminum honeycomb covered with multiple layers of fiberglass. Strapped to it was a retropack (1) consisting of three rockets deployed to brake the spacecraft during reentry. Between these were three minor rockets for separating the spacecraft from the launch vehicle at orbital insertion. The straps that held the package could be severed when it was no longer needed. Next to the heat shield was the pressurized crew compartment (3). Inside, an astronaut would be strapped to a form-fitting seat with instruments in front of him and with his back to the heat shield. Underneath the seat was the environmental control system supplying oxygen and heat, scrubbing the air of CO2, vapor and odors, and (on orbital flights) collecting urine. The recovery compartment (4) at the narrow end of the spacecraft contained three parachutes: a drogue to stabilize free fall and two main chutes, a primary and reserve. Between the heat shield and inner wall of the crew compartment was a landing skirt, deployed by letting down the heat shield before landing. On top of the recovery compartment was the antenna section (5) containing both antennas for communication and scanners for guiding spacecraft orientation. Attached was a flap used to ensure the spacecraft was faced heat shield first during reentry. A launch escape system (6) was mounted to the narrow end of the spacecraft containing three small solid-fueled rockets which could be fired briefly in a launch failure to separate the capsule safely from its booster. It would deploy the capsule's parachute for a landing nearby at sea. (See also Mission profile for details.)
The Mercury spacecraft did not have an on-board computer, instead relying on all computation for reentry to be calculated by computers on the ground, with their results (retrofire times and firing attitude) then transmitted to the spacecraft by radio while in flight. All computer systems used in the Mercury space program were housed in NASA facilities on Earth. The computer systems were IBM 701 computers. (See also Ground control for details.)
The astronaut lay in a sitting position with his back to the heat shield, which was found to be the position that best enabled a human to withstand the high g-forces of launch and reentry. A fiberglass seat was custom-molded from each astronaut's space-suited body for maximum support. Near his left hand was a manual abort handle to activate the launch escape system if necessary prior to or during liftoff, in case the automatic trigger failed.
To supplement the onboard environmental control system, he wore a pressure suit with its own oxygen supply, which would also cool him. A cabin atmosphere of pure oxygen at a low pressure of (equivalent to an altitude of ) was chosen, rather than one with the same composition as air (nitrogen/oxygen) at sea level. This was easier to control, avoided the risk of decompression sickness ("the bends"), and also saved on spacecraft weight. Fires (which never occurred) would have to be extinguished by emptying the cabin of oxygen. In such case, or failure of the cabin pressure for any reason, the astronaut could make an emergency return to Earth, relying on his suit for survival. The astronauts normally flew with their visor up, which meant that the suit was not inflated. With the visor down and the suit inflated, the astronaut could only reach the side and bottom panels, where vital buttons and handles were placed.
The astronaut also wore electrodes on his chest to record his heart rhythm, a cuff that could take his blood pressure, and a rectal thermometer to record his temperature (this was replaced by an oral thermometer on the last flight). Data from these was sent to the ground during the flight. The astronaut normally drank water and ate food pellets.
Once in orbit, the spacecraft could be rotated in yaw, pitch, and roll: along its longitudinal axis (roll), left to right from the astronaut's point of view (yaw), and up or down (pitch). Movement was created by rocket-propelled thrusters which used hydrogen peroxide as a fuel. For orientation, the pilot could look through the window in front of him or he could look at a screen connected to a periscope with a camera which could be turned 360°.
The Mercury astronauts had taken part in the development of their spacecraft, and insisted that manual control, and a window, be elements of its design. As a result, spacecraft movement and other functions could be controlled three ways: remotely from the ground when passing over a ground station, automatically guided by onboard instruments, or manually by the astronaut, who could replace or override the two other methods. Experience validated the astronauts' insistence on manual controls. Without them, Gordon Cooper's manual reentry during the last flight would not have been possible.
The Mercury spacecraft design was modified three times by NASA between 1958 and 1959. After bidding by potential contractors had been completed, NASA selected the design submitted as "C" in November 1958. After it failed a test flight in July 1959, a final configuration, "D", emerged. The heat shield shape had been developed earlier in the 1950s through experiments with ballistic missiles, which had shown a blunt profile would create a shock wave that would lead most of the heat around the spacecraft. To further protect against heat, either a heat sink, or an ablative material, could be added to the shield. The heat sink would remove heat by the flow of the air inside the shock wave, whereas the ablative heat shield would remove heat by a controlled evaporation of the ablative material. After uncrewed tests, the latter was chosen for crewed flights. Apart from the capsule design, a rocket plane similar to the existing X-15 was considered. This approach was still too far from being able to make a spaceflight, and was consequently dropped. The heat shield and the stability of the spacecraft were tested in wind tunnels, and later in flight. The launch escape system was developed through uncrewed flights. During a period of problems with development of the landing parachutes, alternative landing systems such as the Rogallo glider wing were considered, but ultimately scrapped.
The spacecraft were produced at McDonnell Aircraft, St. Louis, Missouri, in clean rooms and tested in vacuum chambers at the McDonnell plant. The spacecraft had close to 600 subcontractors, such as Garrett AiResearch which built the spacecraft's environmental control system. Final quality control and preparations of the spacecraft were made at Hangar S at Cape Canaveral. NASA ordered 20 production spacecraft, numbered 1 through 20. Five of the 20, Nos. 10, 12, 15, 17, and 19, were not flown. Spacecraft No. 3 and No. 4 were destroyed during uncrewed test flights. Spacecraft No. 11 sank and was recovered from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean after 38 years. Some spacecraft were modified after initial production (refurbished after launch abort, modified for longer missions, etc.). A number of Mercury boilerplate spacecraft (made from non-flight materials or lacking production spacecraft systems) were also made by NASA and McDonnell. They were designed and used to test spacecraft recovery systems and the escape tower. McDonnell also built the spacecraft simulators used by the astronauts during training.
A launch vehicle called Little Joe was used for uncrewed tests of the launch escape system, using a Mercury capsule with an escape tower mounted on it. Its main purpose was to test the system at max q, when aerodynamic forces against the spacecraft peaked, making separation of the launch vehicle and spacecraft most difficult. It was also the point at which the astronaut was subjected to the heaviest vibrations. The Little Joe rocket used solid-fuel propellant and was originally designed in 1958 by NACA for suborbital crewed flights, but was redesigned for Project Mercury to simulate an Atlas-D launch. It was produced by North American Aviation. It was not able to change direction; instead its flight depended on the angle from which it was launched. Its maximum altitude was fully loaded. A Scout launch vehicle was used for a single flight intended to evaluate the tracking network; however, it failed and was destroyed from the ground shortly after launch.
The Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle was an (with capsule and escape system) single-stage launch vehicle used for suborbital (ballistic) flights. It had a liquid-fueled engine that burned alcohol and liquid oxygen producing about of thrust, which was not enough for orbital missions. It was a descendant of the German V-2, and developed for the U.S. Army during the early 1950s. It was modified for Project Mercury by removing the warhead and adding a collar for supporting the spacecraft together with material for damping vibrations during launch. Its rocket motor was produced by North American Aviation and its direction could be altered during flight by its fins. They worked in two ways: by directing the air around them, or by directing the thrust by their inner parts (or both at the same time). Both the Atlas-D and Redstone launch vehicles contained an automatic abort sensing system which allowed them to abort a launch by firing the launch escape system if something went wrong. The Jupiter rocket, also developed by Von Braun's team at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, was considered as well for intermediate Mercury suborbital flights at a higher speed and altitude than Redstone, but this plan was dropped when it turned out that man-rating Jupiter for the Mercury program would actually cost more than flying an Atlas due to economics of scale. Jupiter's only use other than as a missile system was for the short-lived Juno II launch vehicle, and keeping a full staff of technical personnel around solely to fly a few Mercury capsules would result in excessively high costs.
Orbital missions required use of the Atlas LV-3B, a man-rated version of the Atlas D which was originally developed as the United States' first operational intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) by Convair for the Air Force during the mid-1950s. The Atlas was a "one-and-one-half-stage" rocket fueled by kerosene and liquid oxygen (LOX). The rocket by itself stood high; total height of the Atlas-Mercury space vehicle at launch was .
The Atlas first stage was a booster skirt with two engines burning liquid fuel. This, together with the larger sustainer second stage, gave it sufficient power to launch a Mercury spacecraft into orbit. Both stages fired from lift-off with the thrust from the second stage sustainer engine passing through an opening in the first stage. After separation from the first stage, the sustainer stage continued alone. The sustainer also steered the rocket by thrusters guided by gyroscopes. Smaller vernier rockets were added on its sides for precise control of maneuvers.
NASA announced the following seven astronauts – known as the Mercury Seven – on April 9, 1959:
Shepard became the first American in space by making a suborbital flight in May 1961. He went on to fly in the Apollo program and became the only Mercury astronaut to walk on the Moon. Gus Grissom, who became the second American in space, also participated in the Gemini and Apollo programs, but died in January 1967 during a pre-launch test for Apollo 1. Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth in February 1962, then quit NASA and went into politics, serving as a US Senator from 1974 to 1999, and returned to space in 1998 as a Payload Specialist aboard STS-95. Deke Slayton was grounded in 1962, but remained with NASA and was appointed Chief Astronaut at the beginning of Project Gemini. He remained in the position of senior astronaut, in charge of space crew flight assignments among many other responsibilities, until towards the end of Project Apollo, when he resigned and began training to fly on the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975, which he successfully did. Gordon Cooper became the last to fly in Mercury and made its longest flight, and also flew a Gemini mission. Carpenter's Mercury flight was his only trip into space. Schirra flew the third orbital Mercury mission, and then flew a Gemini mission. Three years later, he commanded the first crewed Apollo mission, becoming the only person to fly in all three of those programs.
One of the astronauts' tasks was publicity; they gave interviews to the press and visited project manufacturing facilities to speak with those who worked on Project Mercury. To make their travels easier, they requested and got jet fighters for personal use. The press was especially fond of John Glenn, who was considered the best speaker of the seven. They sold their personal stories to "Life" magazine which portrayed them as patriotic, God-fearing family men. "Life" was also allowed to be at home with the families while the astronauts were in space. During the project, Grissom, Carpenter, Cooper, Schirra and Slayton stayed with their families at or near Langley Air Force Base; Glenn lived at the base and visited his family in Washington DC on weekends. Shepard lived with his family at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia.
Other than Grissom, who was killed in the 1967 Apollo 1 fire, the other six survived past retirement and died between 1993 and 2016.
Prior to Project Mercury, there was no protocol for selecting astronauts so NASA would set a far reaching precedent with both their selection process and initial choices for astronaut. At the end of 1958, various ideas for the selection pool were discussed privately within the national government and the civilian space program, and also among the public at large. Initially, there was the idea to issue a widespread public call to volunteers. Thrill seekers such as rock climbers and acrobats would have been allowed to apply but this idea was quickly shot down by NASA officials who understood that an undertaking such as space flight required individuals with professional training and education in flight engineering. By late 1958, NASA officials decided to move forward with test pilots being the heart of their selection pool. On President Eisenhower's insistence, the group was further narrowed down to active duty military test pilots, which set the number of candidates at 508 men who were USN or USMC naval aviation pilots (NAPs), or USAF pilots of Senior or Command rating. These men had long military records, which would give NASA officials more background information on which to base their decisions. Furthermore, these men were adept at flying the most advanced aircraft to date, giving them the best qualifications for the new position of astronaut. However, this selection excluded women since there were no female military test pilots at the time. It also excluded civilian NASA X-15 pilot Neil Armstrong, though he had been selected by the US Air Force in 1958 for its Man in Space Soonest program, which was replaced by Mercury. Although Armstrong had been a combat-experienced NAP during the Korean War, he left active duty in 1952. Armstrong became NASA's first civilian astronaut in 1962 when he was selected for NASA's second group, and became the first man on the Moon in 1969.
It was further stipulated that candidates should be between 25 and 40 years old, no taller than , and hold a college degree in a STEM subject. The college degree requirement excluded the USAF's X-1 pilot, then-Lt Col (later Brig Gen) Chuck Yeager, the first person to exceed the speed of sound. He later became a critic of the project, ridiculing the civilian space program, labeling astronauts as "spam in a can." John Glenn did not have a college degree either, but used influential friends to make the selection committee accept him. USAF Capt. (later Col.) Joseph Kittinger, a USAF fighter pilot and stratosphere balloonist, met all the requirements but preferred to stay in his contemporary project. Other potential candidates declined because they did not believe that human spaceflight had a future beyond Project Mercury. From the original 508, 110 candidates were selected for an interview, and from the interviews, 32 were selected for further physical and mental testing. Their health, vision, and hearing were examined, together with their tolerance to noise, vibrations, g-forces, personal isolation, and heat. In a special chamber, they were tested to see if they could perform their tasks under confusing conditions. The candidates had to answer more than 500 questions about themselves and describe what they saw in different images. Navy Lt (later Capt) Jim Lovell, who was later an astronaut in the Gemini and Apollo programs, did not pass the physical tests. After these tests it was intended to narrow the group down to six astronauts, but in the end it was decided to keep seven.
The astronauts went through a training program covering some of the same exercises that were used in their selection. They simulated the g-force profiles of launch and reentry in a centrifuge at the Naval Air Development Center, and were taught special breathing techniques necessary when subjected to more than 6 g. Weightlessness training took place in aircraft, first on the rear seat of a two-seater fighter and later inside converted and padded cargo aircraft. They practiced gaining control of a spinning spacecraft in a machine at the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory called the Multi-Axis Spin-Test Inertia Facility (MASTIF), by using an attitude controller handle simulating the one in the spacecraft. A further measure for finding the right attitude in orbit was star and Earth recognition training in planetaria and simulators. Communication and flight procedures were practiced in flight simulators, first together with a single person assisting them and later with the Mission Control Center. Recovery was practiced in pools at Langley, and later at sea with frogmen and helicopter crews.
A Redstone rocket was used to boost the capsule for 2 minutes and 30 seconds to an altitude of ; the capsule continued ascending on a ballistic curve after booster separation. The launch escape system was jettisoned at the same time. At the top of the curve, the spacecraft's retrorockets were fired for testing purposes; they were not necessary for reentry because orbital speed had not been attained. The spacecraft landed in the Atlantic Ocean. The suborbital mission took about 15 minutes, had an apogee altitude of , and a downrange distance of . From the time of booster-spacecraft separation until reentry where air started to slow down the spacecraft, the pilot would experience weightlessness as shown on the image. The recovery procedure would be the same as an orbital mission.
Preparations for a mission started a month in advance with the selection of the primary and back-up astronaut; they would practice together for the mission. For three days prior to launch, the astronaut went through a special diet to minimize his need for defecating during the flight. On the morning of the trip he typically ate a steak breakfast. After having sensors applied to his body and being dressed in the pressure suit, he started breathing pure oxygen to prepare him for the atmosphere of the spacecraft. He arrived at the launch pad, took the elevator up the launch tower and entered the spacecraft two hours before launch. Once the astronaut was secured inside, the hatch was bolted, the launch area evacuated and the mobile tower rolled back. After this, the launch vehicle was filled with liquid oxygen. The entire procedure of preparing for launch and launching the spacecraft followed a time table called the countdown. It started a day in advance with a pre-count, in which all systems of the launch vehicle and spacecraft were checked. After that followed a 15-hour hold, during which pyrotechnics were installed. Then came the main countdown which for orbital flights started 6½ hours before launch (T – 390 min), counted backwards to launch (T = 0) and then forward until orbital insertion (T + 5 min).
On an orbital mission, the Atlas' rocket engines were ignited four seconds before lift-off. The launch vehicle was held to the ground by clamps and then released when sufficient thrust was built up at lift-off (A). After 30 seconds of flight, the point of maximum dynamic pressure against the vehicle was reached, at which the astronaut felt heavy vibrations. After 2 minutes and 10 seconds, the two outboard booster engines shut down and were released with the aft skirt, leaving the center sustainer engine running (B). At this point, the launch escape system was no longer needed, and was separated from the spacecraft by its jettison rocket (C). The space vehicle moved gradually to a horizontal attitude until, at an altitude of , the sustainer engine shut down and the spacecraft was inserted into orbit (D). This happened after 5 minutes and 10 seconds in a direction pointing east, whereby the spacecraft would gain speed from the rotation of the Earth. Here the spacecraft fired the three posigrade rockets for a second to separate it from the launch vehicle. Just before orbital insertion and sustainer engine cutoff, g-loads peaked at 8 g (6 g for a suborbital flight). In orbit, the spacecraft automatically turned 180°, pointed the retropackage forward and its nose 14.5° downward and kept this attitude for the rest of the orbital phase to facilitate communication with the ground.
Once in orbit, it was not possible for the spacecraft to change its trajectory except by initiating reentry. Each orbit would typically take 88 minutes to complete. The lowest point of the orbit, called perigee, was at about altitude, and the highest point, called apogee, was about altitude. When leaving orbit (E), the angle of retrofire was 34° downward from the flight path angle. Retrorockets fired for 10 seconds each (F) in a sequence where one started 5 seconds after the other. During reentry (G), the astronaut would experience about 8 g (11–12 g on a suborbital mission). The temperature around the heat shield rose to and at the same time, there was a two-minute radio blackout due to ionization of the air around the spacecraft.
After reentry, a small, drogue parachute (H) was deployed at for stabilizing the spacecraft's descent. The main parachute (I) was deployed at starting with a narrow opening that opened fully in a few seconds to lessen the strain on the lines. Just before hitting the water, the landing bag inflated from behind the heat shield to reduce the force of impact (J). Upon landing the parachutes were released. An antenna (K) was raised and sent out signals that could be traced by ships and helicopters. Further, a green marker dye was spread around the spacecraft to make its location more visible from the air. Frogmen brought in by helicopters inflated a collar around the craft to keep it upright in the water. The recovery helicopter hooked onto the spacecraft and the astronaut blew the escape hatch to exit the capsule. He was then hoisted aboard the helicopter that finally brought both him and the spacecraft to the ship.
The number of personnel supporting a Mercury mission was typically around 18,000, with about 15,000 people associated with recovery. Most of the others followed the spacecraft from the World Wide Tracking Network, a chain of 18 stations placed around the equator, which was based on a network used for satellites and made ready in 1960. It collected data from the spacecraft and provided two-way communication between the astronaut and the ground. Each station had a range of and a pass typically lasted 7 minutes. Mercury astronauts on the ground would take the role of Capsule Communicator, or CAPCOM, who communicated with the astronaut in orbit. Data from the spacecraft were sent to the ground, processed at the Goddard Space Center and relayed to the Mercury Control Center at Cape Canaveral. In the Control Center, the data were displayed on boards on each side of a world map, which showed the position of the spacecraft, its ground track and the place it could land in an emergency within the next 30 minutes.
The World Wide Tracking Network went on to serve subsequent space programs, until it was replaced by a satellite relay system in the 1980s. Mission Control Center was moved from Cape Canaveral to Houston in 1965.
On April 12, 1961 the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space on an orbital flight. Alan Shepard became the first American in space on a suborbital flight three weeks later, on May 5, 1961. John Glenn, the third Mercury astronaut to fly, became the first American to reach orbit on February 20, 1962, but only after the Soviets had launched a second cosmonaut, Gherman Titov, into a day-long flight in August 1961. Three more Mercury orbital flights were made, ending on May 16, 1963 with a day-long, 22 orbit flight. However, the Soviet Union ended its Vostok program the next month, with the human spaceflight endurance record set by the 82-orbit, almost 5-day Vostok 5 flight.
All of the six crewed Mercury flights were successful, though some planned flights were canceled during the project (see below). The main medical problems encountered were simple personal hygiene, and post-flight symptoms of low blood pressure. The launch vehicles had been tested through uncrewed flights, therefore the numbering of crewed missions did not start with 1. Also, there were two separately numbered series: MR for "Mercury-Redstone" (suborbital flights), and MA for "Mercury-Atlas" (orbital flights). These names were not popularly used, since the astronauts followed a pilot tradition, each giving their spacecraft a name. They selected names ending with a "7" to commemorate the seven astronauts. Times given are Universal Coordinated Time, local time + 5 hours. MA = Mercury-Atlas, MR = Mercury-Redstone, LC = Launch Complex.
The 20 uncrewed flights used Little Joe, Redstone, and Atlas launch vehicles. They were used to develop the launch vehicles, launch escape system, spacecraft and tracking network. One flight of a Scout rocket attempted to launch a satellite for testing the ground tracking network, but failed to reach orbit. The Little Joe program used seven airframes for eight flights, of which three were successful. The second Little Joe flight was named Little Joe 6, because it was inserted into the program after the first 5 airframes had been allocated.
Nine of the planned flights were canceled. Suborbital flights were planned for four other astronauts but the number of flights was cut down gradually and finally all remaining were canceled after Titov's flight. Mercury-Atlas 9 was intended to be followed by more one-day flights and even a three-day flight but with the coming of the Gemini Project it seemed unnecessary. The Jupiter booster was, as mentioned above, intended to be used for different purposes.
Today the Mercury program is commemorated as the first American human space program. It did not win the race against the Soviet Union, but gave back national prestige and was scientifically a successful precursor of later programs such as Gemini, Apollo and Skylab.
During the 1950s, some experts doubted that human spaceflight was possible. Still, when John F. Kennedy was elected president, many, including he, had doubts about the project. As president he chose to support the programs a few months before the launch of "Freedom 7", which became a public success. Afterwards, a majority of the American public supported human spaceflight, and, within a few weeks, Kennedy announced a plan for a crewed mission to land on the Moon and return safely to Earth before the end of the 1960s.
The six astronauts who flew were awarded medals, driven in parades and two of them were invited to address a joint session of the US Congress. As a response to the selection criteria, which ruled out women, a private project was founded in which 13 women pilots successfully underwent the same tests as the men in Project Mercury. It was named Mercury 13 by the media Despite this effort, NASA did not select female astronauts until 1978 for the Space Shuttle.
On February 25, 2011, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the world's largest technical professional society, awarded Boeing (the successor company to McDonnell Aircraft) a Milestone Award for important inventions which debuted on the Mercury spacecraft.
On film, the program was portrayed in "The Right Stuff", a 1983 adaptation of Tom Wolfe's 1979 book of the same name, together with the HBO miniseries "From the Earth to the Moon" (1998), and "Hidden Figures" (2016).
In 1964, a monument commemorating Project Mercury was unveiled near Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral, featuring a metal logo combining the symbol of Mercury with the number 7. In 1962, the United States Postal Service honored the Mercury-Atlas 6 flight with a Project Mercury commemorative stamp, the first US postal issue to depict a crewed spacecraft.
The spacecraft that flew, together with some that did not, are on display in the United States. "Friendship 7" (capsule No. 13) went on a global tour, popularly known as its "fourth orbit".
Commemorative patches were designed by entrepreneurs after the Mercury program to satisfy collectors.
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Gaius Maecenas
Gaius Cilnius Maecenas (; circa 70 BC – 8 BC) was a friend and political advisor to Octavian, who later reigned as Augustus. He was also an important patron for the new generation of Augustan poets, including both Horace and Virgil. During the reign of Augustus, Maecenas served as a quasi-culture minister to the Emperor but in spite of his wealth and power he chose not to enter the Senate, remaining of equestrian rank.
Expressions in Propertius seem to imply that Maecenas had taken some part in the campaigns of Mutina, Philippi and Perugia. He prided himself on his ancient Etruscan lineage, and claimed descent from the princely house of the Cilnii, who excited the jealousy of their townsmen by their preponderant wealth and influence at Arretium in the 4th century BC. Horace makes reference to this in his address to Maecenas at the opening of his first books of "Odes" with the expression "atavis edite regibus" (descendant of kings). Tacitus refers to him as "Cilnius Maecenas"; it is possible that "Cilnius" was his mother's nomen – or that Maecenas was in fact a cognomen.
The Gaius Maecenas mentioned in Cicero as an influential member of the equestrian order in 91 BC may have been his grandfather, or even his father. The testimony of Horace and Maecenas's own literary tastes imply that he had profited from the highest education of his time.
His great wealth may have been in part hereditary, but he owed his position and influence to his close connection with the Emperor Augustus. He first appears in history in 40 BC, when he was employed by Octavian in arranging his marriage with Scribonia, and afterwards in assisting to negotiate the Treaty of Brundisium and the reconciliation with Mark Antony. As a close friend and advisor he had even acted as deputy for Augustus when he was abroad.
It was in 38 BC that Horace was introduced to Maecenas, who had before this received Lucius Varius Rufus and Virgil into his intimacy. In the "Journey to Brundisium," in 37, Maecenas and Marcus Cocceius Nerva – great-grandfather of the future emperor Nerva – are described as having been sent on an important mission, and they were successful in patching up, by the Treaty of Tarentum, a reconciliation between the two claimants for supreme power. During the Sicilian war against Sextus Pompeius in 36, Maecenas was sent back to Rome, and was entrusted with supreme administrative control in the city and in Italy. He was vicegerent of Octavian during the campaign that led to the Battle of Actium, when, with great promptness and secrecy, he crushed the conspiracy of Lepidus the Younger; during the subsequent absences of his chief in the provinces he again held the same position.
During the latter years of his life he fell somewhat out of favour with his master. Suetonius attributes the loss of the imperial favour to Maecenas' having indiscreetly revealed to Terentia, his beautiful but difficult wife, the discovery of the conspiracy in which her brother Lucius Licinius Varro Murena was implicated, but according to Cassius Dio (writing in the early 3rd century AD) it was due to the emperor's relations with Terentia. Maecenas died in 8 BC, leaving the emperor sole heir to his wealth.
Opinions were much divided in ancient times as to his personal character; but the testimony as to his administrative and diplomatic ability was unanimous. He enjoyed the credit of sharing largely in the establishment of the new order of things, of reconciling parties, and of carrying the new empire safely through many dangers. To his influence especially was attributed the more humane policy of Octavian after his first alliance with Antony and Lepidus. The best summary of his character as a man and a statesman, by Marcus Velleius Paterculus, describes him as "of sleepless vigilance in critical emergencies, far-seeing and knowing how to act, but in his relaxation from business more luxurious and effeminate than a woman." Expressions in the "Odes of Horace" seem to imply that Maecenas was deficient in the robustness of fibre which Romans liked to imagine was characteristic of their city.
Maecenas is most famous for his support of young poets, hence his name has become the eponym for a "patron of arts". He supported Virgil who wrote the "Georgics" in his honour. It was Virgil, impressed with examples of Horace's poetry, who introduced Horace to Maecenas. Indeed, Horace begins the first poem of his "Odes" ("Odes" I.i) by addressing his new patron. Maecenas gave him full financial support as well as an estate in the Sabine mountains. Propertius and the minor poets Varius Rufus, Plotius Tucca, Valgius Rufus and Domitius Marsus also were his protégés.
His character as a munificent patron of literature – which has made his name a household word – is gratefully acknowledged by the recipients of it and attested by the regrets of the men of letters of a later age, expressed by Martial and Juvenal. His patronage was exercised, not from vanity or a mere dilettante love of letters, but with a view to the higher interest of the state. He recognized in the genius of the poets of that time not only the truest ornament of the court, but the power of reconciling men's minds to the new order of things, and of investing the actual state of affairs with an ideal glory and majesty. The change in seriousness of purpose between the "Eclogues" and the "Georgics" of Virgil was in a great measure the result of the direction given by the statesman to the poet's genius. A similar change between the earlier odes of Horace, in which he declares his epicurean indifference to affairs of state, and the great national odes of the third book has been ascribed by some to the same guidance. However, since the organization of the Odes is not entirely chronological, and their composition followed both books of Satires and the Epodes, this argument is plainly specious; but doubtless the milieu of Maecenas's circle influenced the writing of the Roman Odes (III.1–6) and others such as the ode to Pollio, Motum ex Metello (II.1).
Maecenas endeavoured also to divert the less masculine genius of Propertius from harping continually on his love to themes of public interest, an effort which to some extent backfired in the ironic elegies of Book III. But if the motive of his patronage had been merely political, it never could have inspired the affection which it did in its recipients. The great charm of Maecenas in his relation to the men of genius who formed his circle was his simplicity, cordiality and sincerity. Although not particular in the choice of some of the associates of his pleasures, he admitted none but men of worth to his intimacy, and when once admitted they were treated like equals. Much of the wisdom of Maecenas probably lives in the "Satires" and "Epistles" of Horace. It has fallen to the lot of no other patron of literature to have his name associated with works of such lasting interest as the "Georgics" of Virgil, the first three books of Horace's "Odes," and the first book of his "Epistles."
Maecenas also wrote literature himself in both prose and verse. The some twenty fragments that remain show that he was less successful as an author than as a judge and patron of literature.
His prose works on various subjects – "Prometheus," dialogues like "Symposium" (a banquet at which Virgil, Horace and Messalla were present), "De cultu suo " (on his manner of life) and a poem "In Octaviam" ("Against Octavia") of which the content is unclear – were ridiculed by Augustus, Seneca and Quintilian for their strange style, the use of rare words and awkward transpositions.
According to Dio Cassius, Maecenas was also the inventor of a system of shorthand.
Maecenas sited his famous gardens, the first gardens in the Hellenistic-Persian garden style in Rome, on the Esquiline Hill, atop the Servian Wall and its adjoining necropolis, near the gardens of Lamia. It contained terraces, libraries and other aspects of Roman culture. Maecenas is said to have been the first to construct a swimming bath of hot water in Rome, which may have been in the gardens. The luxury of his gardens and villas incurred the displeasure of Seneca the Younger.
Though the approximate site is known, it is not easy to reconcile literary indications to determine the gardens' exact location, whether or not they lay on both sides of the Servian "ager" and both north and south of the porta Esquilina. Common graves of the archaic Esquiline necropolis have been found near the north-west corner of the modern Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, that is, outside the Esquiline gate of antiquity and north of the "via Tiburtina vetus"; most probably the "horti Maecenatiani" extended north from this gate and road on both sides of the "ager". The "Auditorium of Maecenas", a probable venue for dining and entertainment, may still be visited (upon reservation) on Largo Leopardi near Via Merulana.
The gardens became imperial property after Maecenas's death, and Tiberius lived there after his return to Rome in 2 AD. Nero connected them with the Palatine Hill via his Domus Transitoria, and viewed the burning of that from the turris Maecenatiana. This turris was probably the "molem propinquam nubibus arduis" ("the pile, among the clouds") mentioned by Horace.
Whether the "horti Maecenatiani" bought by Fronto actually were the former gardens of Maecenas is unknown, and the "domus Frontoniana" mentioned in the twelfth century by Magister Gregorius may also refer to the gardens of Maecenas.
His name has become a byword in many languages for a well-connected and wealthy patron. For instance, John Dewey, in his lectures Art as Experience, said "Economic patronage by wealthy and powerful individuals has at many times played a part in the encouragement of artistic production. Probably many a savage tribe had its Maecenas." He is celebrated for this role in two poems, the "Elegiae in Maecenatem", which were written after his death and collected in the "Appendix Vergiliana". In various languages, it has even been coined into a word for (private) patronage (mainly cultural, but sometimes wider, usually perceived as more altruistic than sponsorship). A verse of the student song "Gaudeamus igitur" wishes longevity upon the charity of the students' benefactors ("Maecenatum", genitive plural of "Maecenas").
In Poland and Western Ukraine, a lawyer would customarily be addressed with the honorific "Pan Mecenas", as lawyers were considered to be philanthropists and patrons of the arts.
In "The Great Gatsby", along with Midas and J. P. Morgan, Maecenas is one of the three famous wealthy men whose secrets narrator Nick Carraway hopes to find in the books he buys for his home library.
Maecenas was portrayed by Alex Wyndham in the second season of the 2005 HBO television series "Rome". He was portrayed by Russell Barr in the made-for-TV movie . He is also featured in one episode of the second series of Plebs on ITV.
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Magick (Thelema)
Magick, in the context of Aleister Crowley's Thelema, is a term used to show and differentiate the occult from performance magic and is defined as "the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will", including "mundane" acts of will as well as ritual magic. Crowley wrote that "it is theoretically possible to cause in any object any change of which that object is capable by nature". John Symonds and Kenneth Grant attach a deeper occult significance to this preference.
Crowley saw Magick as the essential method for a person to reach true understanding of the self and to act according to one's true will, which he saw as the reconciliation "between freewill and destiny." Crowley describes this process in his "Magick, Book 4":
The term itself is an Early Modern English spelling for "magic", used in works such as the 1651 translation of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa's "De Occulta Philosophia", "Three Books of Occult Philosophy, or Of Magick". Aleister Crowley chose the spelling to differentiate his practices and rituals from stage magic and the term has since been re-popularised by those who have adopted elements of his teachings.
Crowley defined Magick as "the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will." He goes on to elaborate on this, in one postulate, and twenty eight theorems. His first clarification on the matter is that of a postulate, in which he states "ANY required change may be effected by the application of the proper kind and degree of Force in the proper manner, through the proper medium to the proper object." He goes on further to state:
Crowley made many theories for the paranormal effects of Magick; however, as magicians and mystics had done before him and continue to do after him, Crowley dismissed such effects as useless:
Even so, Crowley asserted that paranormal effects and magical powers have some level of value for the individual:
There are several ways to view what Magick is. Again, at its most broad, it can be defined as any willed action leading to intended change. It can also be seen as the general set of methods used to accomplish the Great Work of mystical attainment. At the practical level, Magick most often takes several practices and forms of ritual, including banishing, invocation and evocation, eucharistic ritual, consecration and purification, astral travel, yoga, sex magic, and divination.
The professed purpose of banishing rituals is to eliminate forces that might interfere with a magical operation, and they are often performed at the beginning of an important event or ceremony (although they can be performed for their own sake as well). The area of effect can be a magick circle, a room, or the magician himself. The general theory of Magick proposes that there are various forces which are represented by the classical elements (air, earth, fire, and water), the planets, the signs of the Zodiac, and adjacent spaces in the astral world. Magick also proposes that various spirits and non-corporeal intelligences can be present. Banishings are performed in order to "clean out" these forces and presences. It is not uncommon to believe that banishings are more psychological than anything else, used to calm and balance the mind, but that the effect is ultimately the same—a sense of cleanliness within the self and the environment. There are many banishing rituals, but most are some variation on two of the most common—"The Star Ruby" and the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram.
Crowley describes banishing in his "Magick, Book 4" (ch.13):
However, he further asserts:
Purification is similar in theme to banishing, but is a more rigorous process of preparing the self and her temple for serious spiritual work. Crowley mentions that ancient magicians would purify themselves through arduous programs, such as through special diets, fasting, sexual abstinence, keeping the body meticulously tidy, and undergoing a complicated series of prayers. He goes on to say that purification no longer requires such activity, since the magician can purify the self via willed intention. Specifically, the magician labors to purify the mind and body of all influences which may interfere with the Great Work:
Crowley recommended symbolically ritual practices, such as bathing and robing before a main ceremony: "The bath signifies the removal of all things extraneous or antagonistic to the one thought. The putting on of the robe is the positive side of the same operation. It is the assumption of the frame of mind suitable to that one thought."
Consecration is an equally important magical operation. It is essentially the dedication, usually of a ritual instrument or space, to a specific purpose. In "Magick, Book 4" (ch.13), Crowley writes:
Invocation is the bringing in or identifying with a particular deity or spirit. Crowley wrote of two keys to success in this arena: to "inflame thyself in praying" and to "invoke often". For Crowley, the single most important invocation, or any act of Magick for that matter, was the invocation of one's Holy Guardian Angel, or "secret self", which allows the adept to know his or her True Will.
Crowley describes the experience of invocation:
Crowley ("Magick, Book 4") discusses three main categories of invocation, although "in the great essentials these three methods are one. In each case the magician identifies himself with the Deity invoked."
Another invocatory technique that the magician can employ is called the "assumption of godforms"—where with "concentrated imagination of oneself in the symbolic shape of any God, one should be able to identify oneself with the idea which [the god] represents." A general method involves positioning the body in a position that is typical for a given god, imagining that the image of the god is coinciding with or enveloping the body, accompanied by the practice of "vibration" of the appropriate god-name(s).
There is a distinct difference between invocation and evocation, as Crowley explains:
Generally, evocation is used for two main purposes: to gather information and to obtain the services or obedience of a spirit or demon. Crowley believed that the most effective form of evocation was found in the grimoire on Goetia (see below), which instructs the magician in how to safely summon forth and command 72 infernal spirits. However, it is equally possible to evoke angelic beings, gods, and other intelligences related to planets, elements, and the Zodiac.
Unlike with invocation, which involves a calling in, evocation involves a calling forth, most commonly into what is called the "triangle of art."
The word "eucharist" originally comes from the Greek word for thanksgiving. However, within Magick, it takes on a special meaning—the transmutation of ordinary things (usually food and drink) into divine sacraments, which are then consumed. The object is to infuse the food and drink with certain properties, usually embodied by various deities, so that the adept takes in those properties upon consumption. Crowley describes the process of the regular practice of eucharistic ritual:
There are several eucharistic rituals within the magical canon. Two of the most well known are The Mass of the Phoenix and The Gnostic Mass. The first is a ritual designed for the individual, which involves sacrificing a "Cake of Light" (a type of bread that serves as the host) to Ra (i.e. the Sun) and infusing a second Cake with the adept's own blood (either real or symbolic, in a gesture reflecting the myth of the Pelican cutting its own breast to feed its young) and then consuming it with the words, "There is no grace: there is no guilt: This is the Law: Do what thou wilt!" The other ritual, The Gnostic Mass, is a very popular public ritual (although it can be practiced privately) that involves a team of participants, including a Priest and Priestess. This ritual is an enactment of the mystical journey that culminates with the Mystic Marriage and the consumption of a Cake of Light and a goblet of wine (a process termed "communication"). Afterwards, each Communicant declares, "There is no part of me that is not of the gods!"
Yoga, as Crowley interprets it, involves several key components. The first is Asana, which is the assumption (after eventual success) of any easy, steady and comfortable posture so as to maintain a good physique which complements the high level of enlightenment that meditation is accompanied with. Next is Pranayama, which is the control of breath. Yogis believe that the number of breaths a human takes are counted before one is even born and thus, by controlling the intake one may also be able to control the life. Mantram, the use of mantras enables the subject to use the knowledge of the Vedas "Atharva Veda" in this context adequately. Yama and Niyama are the adopted moral or behavioral codes (of the adept's choosing) that will be least likely to excite the mind. Pratyahara is the stilling of the thoughts so that the mind becomes quiet. Dharana is the beginning of concentration, usually on a single shape, like a triangle, which eventually leads to Dhyana, the loss of distinction between object and subject, which can be described as the annihilation of the ego (or sense of a separate self). The final stage is Samādhi—Union with the All; it is considered to be the utmost level of awareness that one could possibly achieve. According to Hindu mythology, one of their main three deities, Shiva, had mastered this and thus was bestowed upon with stupendous power and control.
The art of divination is generally employed for the purpose of obtaining information that can guide the adept in his Great Work. The underlying theory states that there exists intelligences (either outside of or inside the mind of the diviner) that can offer accurate information within certain limits using a language of symbols. Normally, divination within Magick is not the same as fortune telling, which is more interested in predicting future events. Rather, divination tends to be more about discovering information about the nature and condition of things that can help the magician gain insight and to make better decisions.
There are literally hundreds of different divinatory techniques in the world. However, Western occult practice mostly includes the use of astrology (calculating the influence of heavenly bodies), bibliomancy (reading random passages from a book, such as Liber Legis or the I Ching), tarot (a deck of 78 cards, each with symbolic meaning, usually laid out in a meaningful pattern), and geomancy (a method of making random marks on paper or in earth that results in a combination of sixteen patterns).
It is an accepted truism within Magick that divination is imperfect. As Crowley writes, "In estimating the ultimate value of a divinatory judgment, one must allow for more than the numerous sources of error inherent in the process itself. The judgment can do no more than the facts presented to it warrant. It is naturally impossible in most cases to make sure that some important factor has not been omitted [...] One must not assume that the oracle is omniscient."
The Tree of Life is a tool used to categorize and organize various mystical concepts. At its most simple level, it is composed of ten spheres, or emanations, called sephiroth (sing. "sephira") which are connected by twenty two paths. The sephiroth are represented by the planets and the paths by the characters of the Hebrew alphabet, which are subdivided by the four classical elements, the seven classical planets, and the twelve signs of the Zodiac. Within the western magical tradition, the Tree is used as a kind of conceptual filing cabinet. Each sephira and path is assigned various ideas, such as gods, cards of the Tarot, astrological planets and signs, elements, etc.
Crowley considered a deep understanding of the Tree of Life to be essential to the magician:
Similar to yoga, learning the Tree of Life is not so much Magick as it is a way to map out one's spiritual universe. As such, the adept may use the Tree to determine a destination for astral travel, to choose which gods to invoke for what purposes, et cetera. It also plays an important role in modeling the spiritual journey, where the adept begins in Malkuth, which is the every-day material world of phenomena, with the ultimate goal being at Kether, the sphere of Unity with the All.
A magical record is a journal or other source of documentation containing magical events, experiences, ideas, and any other information that the magician may see fit to add. There can be many purposes for such a record, such as recording evidence to verify the effectiveness of specific procedures (per the scientific method that Aleister Crowley claimed should be applied to the practice of Magick) or to ensure that data may propagate beyond the lifetime of the magician. Benefits of this process vary, but usually include future analysis and further education by the individual and/or associates with whom the magician feels comfortable in revealing such intrinsically private information.
Crowley was highly insistent upon the importance of this practice. As he writes in Liber E, "It is absolutely necessary that all experiments should be recorded in detail during, or immediately after, their performance ... The more scientific the record is, the better. Yet the emotions should be noted, as being some of the conditions. Let then the record be written with sincerity and care; thus with practice it will be found more and more to approximate to the ideal." Other items he suggests for inclusion include the physical and mental condition of the experimenter, the time and place, and environmental conditions, including the weather.
As with Magick itself, a "magical weapon" is any instrument used to bring about intentional change. As Crowley writes, "Illustration: It is my Will to inform the World of certain facts within my knowledge. I therefore take "magical weapons", pen, ink, and paper ... The composition and distribution of this book is thus an act of Magick by which I cause Changes to take place in conformity with my Will." With that said, in practice, magical weapons are usually specific, consecrated items used within ceremonial magic. There is no hard and fast rule for what is or isn't a magical weapon—if a magician considers it such a weapon, then it is. However, there does exist a set of magical weapons that have particular uses and symbolic meanings. Common weapons include the dagger (or athame in neopagan parlance), sword, wand, holy oil, cup (or graal), disk (or pentacle), oil lamp, bell, and thurible (or censer).
A magical formula is generally a name, word, or series of letters whose meaning illustrates principles and degrees of understanding that are often difficult to relay using other forms of speech or writing. It is a concise means to communicate very abstract information through the medium of a word or phrase, usually regarding a process of spiritual or mystical change. Common formulae include INRI, IAO, ShT, AUMGN, NOX, and LVX.
These words often have no intrinsic meaning in and of themselves. However, when deconstructed, each individual letter may refer to some universal concept found in the system that the formula appears. Additionally, in grouping certain letters together one is able to display meaningful sequences that are considered to be of value to the spiritual system that utilizes them (e.g. spiritual hierarchies, historiographic data, psychological stages, etc.)
In magical rituals involving the invocation of deities, a vocal technique called "vibration" is commonly used. This was a basic aspect of magical training for Crowley, who described it in "Liber O." According to that text, vibration involves a physical set of steps, starting in a standing position, breathing in through the nose while imagining the name of the god entering with the breath, imagining that breath travelling through the entire body, stepping forward with the left foot while throwing the body forward with arms outstretched, visualizing the name rushing out when spoken, ending in an upright stance, with the right forefinger placed upon the lips. According to Crowley in "Liber O", success in this technique is signaled by physical exhaustion and "though only by the student himself is it perceived, when he hears the name of the God vehemently roared forth, as if by the concourse of ten thousand thunders; and it should appear to him as if that Great Voice proceeded from the Universe, and not from himself."
In general ritual practice, "vibration" can also refer to a technique of saying a god-name or a magical formula in a long, drawn-out fashion (i.e. with a full, deep breath) that employs the nasal passages, such that the sound feels and sounds "vibrated'. This is known as Galdering.
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Marcus Claudius Tacitus
Tacitus (; Marcus Claudius Tacitus; c. 200 – June 276) was Roman emperor from 275 to 276. During his short reign he campaigned against the Goths and the Heruli, for which he received the title "Gothicus Maximus".
Tacitus was born in Interamna (Terni), in Italia. He circulated copies of the historian Gaius Cornelius Tacitus' work, which was barely read at the time, perhaps contributing to the partial survival of the historian's work. Modern historiography rejects his claimed descent from the historian as a fabrication. In the course of his long life he discharged the duties of various civil offices, holding the consulship twice, once under Valerian and again in 273, earning universal respect.
After the assassination of Aurelian, the army, apparently in remorse at the effects of the previous centuries' military license, which had brought about the death of the well-liked emperor, relinquished the right of choosing his successor to the Senate. Initially, the Senate hesitated to accept the responsibility, but when the delay had gone on eight months from Aurelian's death it at last determined to settle the matter and offered the throne to the aged "Princeps Senatus", Tacitus.
Tacitus, after ascertaining the sincerity of the Senate's regard for him, accepted their nomination on 25 September 275, and the choice was cordially ratified by the army. This was the last time the Senate elected a Roman Emperor. The interregnum between Aurelian and Tacitus had been quite long, and there is substantial evidence that Aurelian's wife, Ulpia Severina, ruled in her own right before the election of Tacitus. Tacitus had been living in Campania before his election, and returned only reluctantly to the assembly of the Senate in Rome, where he was elected.
He immediately asked the Senators to deify Aurelian, before arresting and executing Aurelian's murderers.
Amongst the highest concerns of the new reign was the restoration of the ancient Senatorial powers. He granted substantial prerogatives to the Senate, securing to them by law the appointment of the emperor, of the consuls, and the provincial governors, as well as supreme right of appeal from every court in the empire in its judicial function, and the direction of certain branches of the revenue in its long-abeyant administrative capacity. Probus respected these changes, but after the reforms of Diocletian in the succeeding decades not a vestige would be left of them.
Next he moved against the barbarian mercenaries that had been gathered by Aurelian to supplement Roman forces for his Eastern campaign. These mercenaries had plundered several towns in the Eastern Roman provinces after Aurelian had been murdered and the campaign cancelled. His half-brother, the Praetorian Prefect Florianus, and Tacitus himself won a victory against these tribes, among which were the Heruli, gaining the emperor the title "Gothicus Maximus".
On his way back to the west to deal with a Frankish and Alamannic invasion of Gaul, according to Aurelius Victor, Eutropius and the Historia Augusta, Tacitus died of fever at Tyana in Cappadocia in June 276. It was reported that he began acting strangely, declaring that he would alter the names of the months to honor himself, before succumbing to a fever. In a contrary account, Zosimus claims he was assassinated, after appointing one of his relatives to an important command in Syria.
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Maya numerals
The Mayan numeral system was the system to represent numbers and calendar dates in the Maya civilization. It was a vigesimal (base-20) positional numeral system. The numerals are made up of three symbols; zero (shell shape, with the plastron uppermost), one (a dot) and five (a bar). For example, thirteen is written as three dots in a horizontal row above two horizontal bars; sometimes it is also written as three vertical dots to the left of two vertical bars. With these three symbols each of the twenty vigesimal digits could be written.
Numbers after 19 were written vertically in powers of twenty. The Mayan used powers of twenty, just as the Hindu–Arabic numeral system uses powers of tens. For example, thirty-three would be written as one dot, above three dots atop two bars. The first dot represents "one twenty" or "1×20", which is added to three dots and two bars, or thirteen. Therefore, (1×20) + 13 = 33. Upon reaching 202 or 400, another row is started (203 or 8000, then 204 or 160,000, and so on). The number 429 would be written as one dot above one dot above four dots and a bar, or (1×202) + (1×201) + 9 = 429.
Other than the bar and dot notation, Maya numerals were sometimes illustrated by face type glyphs or pictures. The face glyph for a number represents the deity associated with the number. These face number glyphs were rarely used, and are mostly seen on some of the most elaborate monumental carving.
Adding and subtracting numbers below 20 using Maya numerals is very simple.
Addition is performed by combining the numeric symbols at each level:
If five or more dots result from the combination, five dots are removed and replaced by a bar. If four or more bars result, four bars are removed and a dot is added to the next higher row.
Similarly with subtraction, remove the elements of the subtrahend symbol from the minuend symbol:
If there are not enough dots in a minuend position, a bar is replaced by five dots. If there are not enough bars, a dot is removed from the next higher minuend symbol in the column and four bars are added to the minuend symbol which is being worked on.
The "Long Count" portion of the Maya calendar uses a variation on the strictly vigesimal numbering. In the second position, only the digits up to 17 are used, and the place value of the third position is not 20×20 = 400, as would otherwise be expected, but 18×20 = 360, so that one dot over two zeros signifies 360. Presumably, this is because 360 is roughly the number of days in a year. (The Maya had however a quite accurate estimation of 365.2422 days for the solar year at least since the early Classic era.) Subsequent positions use all twenty digits and the place values continue as 18×20×20 = 7,200 and 18×20×20×20 = 144,000, etc.
Every known example of large numbers in the Maya system uses this 'modified vigesimal' system, with the third position representing multiples of 18×20. It is reasonable to assume, but not proven by any evidence, that the normal system in use was a pure base-20 system.
Several Mesoamerican cultures used similar numerals and base-twenty systems and the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar requiring the use of zero as a place-holder. The earliest long count date (on Stela 2 at Chiapa de Corzo, Chiapas) is from 36 BC.
Since the eight earliest Long Count dates appear outside the Maya homeland, it is assumed that the use of zero and the Long Count calendar predated the Maya, and was possibly the invention of the Olmec. Indeed, many of the earliest Long Count dates were found within the Olmec heartland. However, the Olmec civilization had come to an end by the 4th century BC, several centuries before the earliest known Long Count dates—which suggests that zero was "not" an Olmec discovery.
Mayan numerals were added to the Unicode Standard in June, 2018 with the release of version 11.0.
The Unicode block for Mayan Numerals is U+1D2E0–U+1D2FF:
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19823
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Michael Foot
Michael Mackintosh Foot (23 July 19133 March 2010) was a British Labour Party politician who served as Labour Leader from 1980 to 1983. Foot began his career as a journalist on "Tribune" and the "Evening Standard". He co-wrote the 1940 polemic against appeasement of Adolf Hitler, "Guilty Men", under a pseudonym.
Foot served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1945 to 1955 and again from 1960 until he retired in 1992. A passionate orator, and associated with the left-wing of the Labour Party for most of his career, Foot was an ardent supporter of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and of British withdrawal from the European Economic Community (EEC). He was appointed to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Employment under Harold Wilson in 1974, and he later served as Leader of the House of Commons (1976–1979) under James Callaghan. He was also Deputy Leader of the Labour Party under Callaghan from 1976 to 1980.
Elected as a compromise candidate, Foot served as the Leader of the Labour Party, and Leader of the Opposition from 1980 to 1983. His strongly left-wing political positions and criticisms of vacillating leadership made him an unpopular leader. Not particularly telegenic, he was nicknamed "Worzel Gummidge" for his rumpled appearance. A centrist faction of the party broke away in 1981 to form the SDP. Foot led Labour into the 1983 general election, when the party obtained its lowest share of the vote since the 1918 general election and the fewest parliamentary seats it had had at any time since before 1945. He resigned the party leadership after the election, and was succeeded as leader by Neil Kinnock.
Books authored by Michael Foot include "Guilty Men" (1940); "The Pen and the Sword" (1957), a biography of Jonathan Swift; and a biography of Aneurin Bevan.
Foot was born in Lipson Terrace, Plymouth, Devon, the fifth of seven children of Isaac Foot (1880–1960) and Eva (née Mackintosh, died 17 May 1946), who was Scottish.
Isaac Foot was a solicitor and founder of the Plymouth law firm Foot and Bowden (which amalgamated with another firm to become Foot Anstey). Isaac Foot was an active member of the Liberal Party and was the Liberal Member of Parliament for Bodmin in Cornwall from 1922–24 and again from 1929–35, and a Lord Mayor of Plymouth.
Michael Foot's siblings included: Sir Dingle Foot MP (1905–78), a Liberal and subsequently Labour MP; Hugh Foot, Baron Caradon (1907–90), Governor of Cyprus (1957–60) and representative of the United Kingdom at the United Nations from 1964–70; Liberal politician John Foot, later Baron Foot (1909–99); Margaret Elizabeth Foot (1911–65); Jennifer Mackintosh Highet (born 1916); and Christopher Isaac Foot (1917–84). He was the uncle of campaigning journalist Paul Foot (1937–2004) and charity worker Oliver Foot (1946–2008).
Foot was educated at Plymouth College Preparatory School, Forres School in Swanage, and Leighton Park School in Reading. When he left Forres School, the headmaster sent a letter to his father in which he said "he has been the leading boy in the school in every way". He then went on to read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Wadham College, Oxford. Foot was a president of the Oxford Union. He also took part in the ESU USA Tour (the debating tour of the United States run by the English-Speaking Union). Upon graduating with a second-class degree in 1934, he took a job as a shipping clerk in Birkenhead. Foot was profoundly influenced by the poverty and unemployment that he witnessed in Liverpool, which was on a different scale from anything he had seen in Plymouth. A Liberal up to this time, Foot was converted to socialism by Oxford University Labour Club president David Lewis, a Canadian Rhodes scholar, and others: "... I knew him [at Oxford] when I was a Liberal [and Lewis] played a part in converting me to socialism." Foot joined the Labour Party and first stood for parliament, aged 22, at the 1935 general election, where he contested Monmouth. During the election, Foot criticised the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, for seeking rearmament. In his election address, Foot contended that "the armaments race in Europe must be stopped now". Foot also supported unilateral disarmament, after multilateral disarmament talks at Geneva had broken down in 1933.
Foot became a journalist, working briefly on the "New Statesman", before joining the left-wing weekly "Tribune" when it was set up in early 1937 to support the Unity Campaign, an attempt to secure an anti-fascist United Front between Labour and other left-wing parties. The campaign's members were Stafford Cripps's (Labour-affiliated) Socialist League, the Independent Labour Party and the Communist Party of Great Britain (CP). Foot resigned in 1938 after the paper's first editor, William Mellor, was sacked for refusing to adopt a new CP policy of backing a Popular Front, including non-socialist parties, against fascism and appeasement. In a 1955 interview, Foot ideologically identified as a libertarian socialist.
He was an avid anti-imperialist and was heavily involved in the India League. As an Oxford graduate, he was influenced by the founder of the India League, Krishna Menon. The India League was the premier UK-based organisation that fought for the 'Liberation of India'. After Indian's independence, Foot would remain close to India and eventually became Chair of the India League.
On the recommendation of Aneurin Bevan, Foot was soon hired by Lord Beaverbrook to work as a writer on his "Evening Standard". (Bevan is supposed to have told Beaverbrook on the phone: "I've got a young bloody knight-errant here. They sacked his boss, so he resigned. Have a look at him.") At the outbreak of the Second World War, Foot volunteered for military service, but was rejected because of his chronic asthma.
In 1940, under the pen-name "Cato" he and two other Beaverbrook journalists (Frank Owen, editor of the "Standard", and Peter Howard of the "Daily Express") published "Guilty Men", which attacked the appeasement policy of the Chamberlain government; it became a runaway bestseller. (In so doing, Foot reversed his position of the 1935 election – when he had attacked the Conservatives as militaristic and demanded disarmament in the face of Nazi Germany.) Beaverbrook made Foot editor of the "Evening Standard" in 1942, when he was aged 28. During the war, Foot made a speech that was later featured in the documentary TV series "The World at War" broadcast in February 1974. Foot was speaking in defence of the "Daily Mirror", which had criticised the conduct of the war by the Churchill government. He mocked the notion that the Government would make no more territorial demands of other newspapers if they allowed the "Mirror" to be censored.
Foot left the "Standard" in 1945 to join the "Daily Herald" as a columnist. The "Daily Herald" was jointly owned by the TUC and Odhams Press, and was effectively an official Labour Party paper. He rejoined "Tribune" as editor from 1948 to 1952, and was again the paper's editor from 1955 to 1960. Throughout his political career he railed against the increasing corporate domination of the press.
Foot fought the Plymouth Devonport constituency in the 1945 general election. His election agent was Labour activist and lifelong friend Ron Lemin. He won the seat for Labour for the first time, holding it until his surprise defeat by Dame Joan Vickers at the 1955 general election. Until 1957, he was the most prominent ally of Aneurin Bevan, who had taken Cripps's place as leader of the Labour left, though Foot and Bevan fell out after Bevan renounced unilateral nuclear disarmament at the 1957 Labour Party conference.
Before the Cold War began in the late 1940s, Foot favoured a 'third way' foreign policy for Europe (he was joint author with Richard Crossman and Ian Mikardo of the pamphlet "Keep Left" in 1947), but in the wake of the communist seizure of power in Hungary and Czechoslovakia he and "Tribune" took a strongly anti-communist position, eventually embracing NATO.
Foot was however a critic of the West's handling of the Korean War, an opponent of West German rearmament in the early 1950s and a founder member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Under his editorship, "Tribune" opposed both the British government's Suez campaign and the Soviet crushing of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. In this period he made regular television appearances on the current affairs programmes "In The News" (BBC) and subsequently "Free Speech" (ITV). "There was certainly nothing wrong with his television technique in those days", reflected Anthony Howard shortly after Foot's death.
Foot returned to parliament at a by-election in Ebbw Vale, Monmouthshire, in 1960, the seat having been left vacant by Bevan's death. He had the Labour whip withdrawn in March 1961 after rebelling against the Labour leadership over air force estimates. He only returned to the Parliamentary Labour Group in 1963, when Harold Wilson became Labour leader after the sudden death of Hugh Gaitskell.
Harold Wilson — the subject of an enthusiastic campaign biography by Foot published by Robert Maxwell's Pergamon Press in 1964 – offered Foot a place in his first government, but Foot turned it down, instead becoming the leader of Labour's left opposition from the back benches. He opposed the government's moves to restrict immigration, join the European Communities (or "Common Market" as they were referred to) and reform the trade unions, was against the Vietnam War and Rhodesia's unilateral declaration of independence, and denounced the Soviet suppression of "socialism with a human face" in Czechoslovakia in 1968. He also famously allied with the Tory right-winger Enoch Powell to scupper the government's plan to abolish the voting rights of hereditary peers and create a House of Lords comprising only life peers – a "seraglio of eunuchs" as Foot put it.
Foot challenged James Callaghan for the post of Treasurer of the Labour Party in 1967, but failed.
After 1970, Labour moved to the left and Wilson came to an accommodation with Foot. Foot served in the Second Shadow Cabinet of Harold Wilson in various roles between 1970 and 1974. In April 1972, he stood for the Deputy Leadership of the party, along with Edward Short and Anthony Crosland. Short defeated Foot in the second ballot after Crosland had been eliminated in the first.
When, in 1974, Labour returned to office under Wilson, Foot became Secretary of State for Employment. According to Ben Pimlott, his appointment was intended to please the left of the party and the Trade Unions. In this role, he played the major part in the government's efforts to maintain the trade unions' support. He was also responsible for the Health and Safety at Work Act. Foot was one of the mainstays of the "no" campaign in the 1975 referendum on British membership of the European Communities. When Wilson retired in 1976, Foot contested the party leadership and led in the first ballot, but was ultimately defeated by James Callaghan. Later that year Foot was elected Deputy Leader, and served as Leader of the House of Commons, which gave him the unenviable task of trying to maintain the survival of the Callaghan government as its majority evaporated.
In 1975, Foot, along with Jennie Lee and others, courted controversy when they supported Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India, after she prompted the declaration of a state of emergency. In December 1975, "The Times" ran an editorial titled 'Is Mr Foot a Fascist?' — their answer was that he was — after Norman Tebbit accused him of 'undiluted fascism' when Foot said that the Ferrybridge Six deserved dismissal for defying a closed shop.
During the Callaghan government Foot took a seat in Cabinet as Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons.
Following Labour's 1979 general election defeat by Margaret Thatcher, James Callaghan remained as party leader for the next 18 months before he resigned. Foot was elected Labour leader on 10 November 1980, beating Denis Healey in the second round of the leadership election (the last leadership contest to involve only Labour MPs). Foot presented himself as a compromise candidate, capable – unlike Healey – of uniting the party, which at the time was riven by the grassroots left-wing insurgency centred around Tony Benn.
The Bennites were demanding revenge for what they considered to be the betrayals of the Callaghan government. They called for MPs who had acquiesced in Callaghan's policies to be replaced by left-wingers who would support unilateral nuclear disarmament, withdrawal from the European Communities, and widespread nationalisation. Benn did not stand for the leadership; apart from Foot and Healey, the other candidates (both eliminated in the first round) were John Silkin, a Tribunite like Foot, and Peter Shore, a Eurosceptic.
When he became leader, Foot was already 67 years old; and frail. After the 1979 energy crisis, Britain went into recession in 1980, which was blamed on the Conservative government's controversial monetarist policy against inflation, which had the effect of increasing unemployment. As a result, Labour had moved ahead of the Conservatives in the opinion polls. After Foot's election as leader, opinion polls showed a double-digit lead for Labour, boosting his hopes of becoming Prime Minister at the next general election, which had to be held by May 1984.
When Foot became leader, the Conservative politician Kenneth Baker commented: "Labour was led by Dixon of Dock Green under Jim Callaghan. Now it is led by Worzel Gummidge." Foot's nickname in the press gradually became "Worzel Gummidge", or "Worzel". This became particularly common after Remembrance Day 1981, when he attended the Cenotaph observance wearing a donkey jacket. After his tenure as leader, Foot would be "depicted as a scarecrow on ITV’s satirical puppet show "Spitting Image"."
Almost immediately after his election as leader, he was faced with a serious crisis. On 25 January 1981, four senior politicians on the right-wing of the Labour Party (Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams, David Owen and William Rodgers, the so-called "Gang of Four") left Labour and formed the SDP, which was launched on 26 March 1981. This was largely seen as the consequence of the Labour Party's swing to the left, polarising divisions in an already divided party.
The SDP won the support of large sections of the media. For most of 1981 and early-1982 its opinion poll ratings suggested that it could at least overtake Labour and possibly win a general election. The Conservatives were then unpopular because of the economic policies of Margaret Thatcher, which had seen unemployment reach a postwar high.
The Labour left was still strong. In 1981, Benn decided to challenge Healey for the Deputy Leadership of the Labour Party, a contest Healey won, albeit narrowly. Foot struggled to make an impact, and was widely criticised for his ineffectiveness, though his performances in the Commons — most notably on the Falklands War of 1982 – won him widespread respect from other parliamentarians. He was criticised by some on the left for supporting Thatcher's immediate resort to military action. The right-wing newspapers nevertheless lambasted him consistently for what they saw as his bohemian eccentricity, attacking him for wearing what they described as a "donkey jacket" (actually he wore a type of duffel coat) at the wreath-laying ceremony at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Day in November 1981, for which he was likened to an "out-of-work navvy" by a fellow Labour MP. Foot did not make it generally known that the Queen Mother had described it as a "sensible coat for a day like this", which could be considered a slight or a compliment depending on whether irony was intended. He later donated the coat to the People's History Museum in Manchester, which holds a collection that spans Foot's entire political career from 1938 to 1990, and his personal papers dating back to 1926.
The formation of the SDP – which formed an alliance with the Liberal Party in June 1981 – contributed to a fall in Labour support. The double-digit lead which had still been intact in opinion polls at the start of 1981 was swiftly wiped out, and by the end of October the opinion polls were showing the Alliance ahead of Labour. Labour briefly regained their lead of most opinion polls in early 1982, but when the Falklands conflict ended on 14 June 1982 with a British victory over Argentina, opinion polls showed the Conservatives firmly in the lead. Their position at the top of the polls was strengthened by the return to economic growth later in the year. It was looking certain that the Conservatives would be re-elected, and the only key issue that the media were still speculating by the end of 1982 was whether it would be Labour or the Alliance who formed the next opposition.
Through late 1982 and early 1983, there was constant speculation that Labour MPs would replace Foot with Healey as leader. Such speculation increased after Labour lost the 1983 Bermondsey by-election, in which Peter Tatchell was Labour candidate, standing against a Conservative, a Liberal (eventual winner Simon Hughes) and John O'Grady, who had declared himself the Real Bermondsey Labour candidate. Critically, Labour held on in a subsequent by-election in Darlington, and Foot remained leader for the 1983 general election.
The 1983 Labour manifesto, strongly socialist in tone, advocated unilateral nuclear disarmament, higher personal taxation and a return to a more interventionist industrial policy. The manifesto also pledged that a Labour government would abolish the House of Lords, nationalise banks and immediately withdraw from the then-European Economic Community. Gerald Kaufman, once Harold Wilson's press officer and during the 1980s a prominent figure on the Labour right-wing, described the 1983 Labour manifesto as "the longest suicide note in history."
As a statement on internal democracy, Foot passed the edict that the manifesto would consist of all resolutions arrived at conference. The party also failed to master the medium of television, while Foot addressed public meetings around the country, and made some radio broadcasts, in the same manner as Clement Attlee did in 1945. Members joked that they had not expected Foot to allow the slogan "Think positive, Act positive, Vote Labour" on grammatical grounds.
The "Daily Mirror" was the only major newspaper to back Foot and the Labour Party at the 1983 general election, urging its readers to vote Labour and "Stop the waste of our nation, for your job your children and your future" in response to the mass unemployment which followed Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's monetarist economic policies to reduce inflation. Most other newspapers urged their readers to vote Conservative.
The Labour Party led by Foot, lost to the Conservatives in a landslide – a result which had been widely predicted by the opinion polls since the previous summer. The only consolation for Foot and Labour was that they did not lose their place in opposition to the SDP-Liberal Alliance, who came close to them in terms of votes but were still a long way behind in terms of seats. Despite this, Foot was very critical of the Alliance, accusing them of "siphoning" Labour support and enabling the Tories to win more seats.
Foot resigned days after the bitter election defeat, and was succeeded as leader on 2 October by Neil Kinnock; who had been tipped from the outset to be Labour's choice of new leader.
Foot took a back seat in Labour politics after 1983 and retired from the House of Commons at the 1992 general election, when Labour lost to the Conservative Party (led by John Major) for the fourth election in succession, but remained politically active. From 1987 to 1992, he was the oldest sitting British MP (preceding former Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath). He defended Salman Rushdie, after Ayatollah Khomeini advocated killing the novelist in a fatwā, and took a strongly pro-interventionist position against Serbia during its conflict with Croatia and Bosnia, supporting NATO forces whilst citing defence of civilian populations in the latter countries. In addition, he was among the Patrons of the British-Croatian Society. "The Guardian"s political editor Michael White criticised Foot's "overgenerous" support for Croatian leader Franjo Tuđman.
Foot remained a high-profile member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). He wrote several books, including highly regarded biographies of Aneurin Bevan and H. G. Wells. Indeed, he was a distinguished Vice-president of the H. G. Wells Society. Many of his friends have said publicly that they regret that he ever gave up literature for politics.
Michael Foot became a supporter of pro-Europeanism in the 1990s.
Foot was an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association. In 1988, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
In a poll of Labour Party activists he was voted the worst post-war Labour Party leader. Though Foot is considered by many right-wingers to be a failure as Labour leader, his biographer Mervyn Jones strongly makes the case that no one else could have held Labour together at the time, particularly in the face of the controversy over the infiltration of the party by Militant. Foot is remembered with affection in Westminster as a great parliamentarian. He was widely liked, and admired for his integrity, habitual courtesy, and generosity of spirit, by both his colleagues and opponents.
A portrait of Foot by the artist Robert Lenkiewicz now permanently hangs in Portcullis House, Westminster.
Oleg Gordievsky, a high-ranking KGB officer who defected from the Soviet Union to the UK in 1985, made allegations against Foot in his 1995 memoirs. Essentially, the allegations claimed that, up until 1968, Foot had spoken to KGB agents "dozens of times", passing information about politics and the trade unions, and Foot had been paid a total of around £150 for his information (said to be worth £37,000 in 2018). "The Sunday Times", which serialised Gordievsky's book under the headline "KGB: Michael Foot was our agent", claimed in an article of 19 February that the Soviet intelligence services regarded Foot as an "agent of influence" (and a "useful idiot"), codenamed "Agent BOOT", and in the pay of the KGB for many years. Crucially, the newspaper used material from the original manuscript of the book which had not been included in the published version.
At the time a leading article in "The Independent" newspaper asserted: "It seems extraordinary that such an unreliable figure should now be allowed, given the lack of supporting evidence, to damage the reputation of figures such as Mr Foot." In a February 1992 interview, Gordievsky declared that he had no further revelations to make about the Labour Party. Foot successfully sued the "Sunday Times", winning "substantial" damages.
However, in the "Daily Telegraph" in 2010, Charles Moore gave a "full account", which he said had been provided to him by Gordievsky shortly after Foot's death, of the extent of Foot's alleged KGB involvement. The account provides additional information concerning the allegations, but no new evidence. The evidence against Foot consists solely of Gordievsky's testimony. Moore wrote that, although the claims are difficult to corroborate without MI6 and KGB files, Gordievsky's past record in revealing KGB contacts in Britain had been shown to be reliable. However Moore did not think that Foot would have known that he was considered an agent, and he probably considered that he was simply keeping the Soviet Union well informed in the interests of peace. There is no evidence Foot gave away secrets.
Foot was a passionate supporter of Plymouth Argyle Football Club from his childhood and once remarked that he wasn't going to die until he had seen them play in the Premier League.
He served for several years as a director of the club, seeing two promotions under his tenure.
For his 90th birthday, Foot was registered with the Football League as an honorary player and given the shirt number 90. This made him the oldest registered professional player in the history of football.
Foot was married to the film-maker, author and feminist historian Jill Craigie (1911–99) from 1949 until her death fifty years later. He had no children.
In February 2007, it was revealed that Foot had an extramarital affair with a woman around 35 years his junior in the early-1970s. The affair, which lasted nearly a year, put a considerable strain on his marriage. The affair is detailed in Foot's official biography, published in March 2007.
On 23 July 2006, his 93rd birthday, Michael Foot became the longest-lived leader of a major British political party, passing Lord Callaghan's record of 92 years, 364 days.
A staunch republican (though well liked by the Royal Family on a personal level), Foot rejected honours from the Queen and the government, including a knighthood and a peerage, on more than one occasion.
He was also an atheist. , he was one of three leaders of the Labour Party to declare that they disbelieved.
Foot suffered from asthma until 1963 (which disqualified him from service in the Second World War) and eczema until middle age.
In October 1963, he was involved in a car crash, suffering pierced lungs, broken ribs, and a broken left leg. Foot used a walking stick for the rest of his life. According to former MP Tam Dalyell, Foot had up until the accident, been a chain-smoker; but gave up the habit thereafter. Jill Craigie also suffered from a crushed hand in this car crash.
In October 1976, Foot became blind in one eye following an attack of shingles. He was absent from the House of Commons for three weeks whilst he recovered.
Foot died at his Hampstead, north London home in the morning of 3 March 2010 at the age of 96. The House of Commons was informed of the news later that day by Justice Secretary Jack Straw, who told the House: "I am sure that this news will be received with great sadness not only in my own party but across the country as a whole." Foot's funeral was a non-religious service, held on 15 March 2010 at Golders Green Crematorium in North-West London.
A memorial to Foot in Plymouth was vandalised with Nazi symbols in the wake of the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum in July 2016.
Foot's involvement in the nuclear disarmament movement gave rise to the story that "The Times" ran the headline "Foot Heads Arms Body" over an article about his leadership of a nuclear-disarmament committee. Some decades later, Martyn Cornell recalled the story as true, saying he had written the headline himself as a "Times" subeditor around 1986. The headline does not, however, appear in The Times Digital Archive, which includes every day's newspaper from 1785 into the 21st century. It is found in a letter published in "The Guardian" in 1978.
Foot was portrayed by Patrick Godfrey in the 2002 BBC production of Ian Curteis's long unproduced "The Falklands Play" and by Michael Pennington in the film "The Iron Lady".
Foot was likened to the scarecrow Worzel Gummidge in "Dear Bill", a long-running series of fictional letters which appeared in the British satirical magazine "Private Eye", purportedly written by Denis Thatcher, husband of Margaret Thatcher, to his friend and golfing partner Bill Deedes, former editor of the "Daily Telegraph".
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Max and Moritz
Max and Moritz: A Story of Seven Boyish Pranks (original: Max und Moritz – Eine Bubengeschichte in sieben Streichen) is a German language illustrated story in verse. This highly inventive, blackly humorous tale, told entirely in rhymed couplets, was written and illustrated by Wilhelm Busch and published in 1865. It is among the early works of Busch, yet it already featured many substantial, effectually aesthetic and formal regularities, procedures and basic patterns of Busch's later works. Many familiar with comic strip history consider it to have been the direct inspiration for the "Katzenjammer Kids" and "Quick & Flupke". The German title satirizes the German custom of giving a subtitle to the name of dramas in the form of "Ein Drama in ... Akten" ("A Drama in ... Acts"), which became dictum in colloquial usage for any event with an unpleasant or dramatic course, e.g. "Bundespräsidentenwahl - Drama in drei Akten" ("Federal Presidential Elections - Drama in Three Acts").
Busch's classic tale of the terrible duo (now in the public domain) has since become a proud part of the culture in German-speaking countries. Even today, parents usually read these tales to their not-yet-literate children. To this day in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, a certain familiarity with the story and its rhymes is still presumed, as it is often referenced in mass communication. The two leering faces are synonymous with mischief, and appear almost logo-like in advertising and even graffiti.
During World War 1, the Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen, named his dog Moritz, giving the name Max to another animal given to his friend.
"Max and Moritz" is the first published original foreign children's book in Japan which was translated into rōmaji by Shinjirō Shibutani and Kaname Oyaizu in 1887 as "" ("Naughty stories").
Max and Moritz became the forerunners to the comic strip. The story inspired Rudolph Dirks to create The Katzenjammer Kids.
After World War 2, German-U.S. composer Richard Mohaupt created together with choreographer Alfredo Bortoluzzi the dance burlesque ("Tanzburleske") "Max und Moritz", which premiered at Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe on December 18, 1949.
There have been several English translations of the original German verses over the years, but all have maintained the original trochaic tetrameter:
Ah, how oft we read or hear of
Boys we almost stand in fear of!
For example, take these stories
Of two youths, named Max and Moritz,
Who, instead of early turning
Their young minds to useful learning,
Often leered with horrid features
At their lessons and their teachers.
Look now at the empty head: he
Is for mischief always ready.
Teasing creatures - climbing fences,
Stealing apples, pears, and quinces,
Is, of course, a deal more pleasant,
And far easier for the present,
Than to sit in schools or churches,
Fixed like roosters on their perches
But O dear, O dear, O deary,
When the end comes sad and dreary!
'Tis a dreadful thing to tell
That on Max and Moritz fell!
All they did this book rehearses,
Both in pictures and in verses.
The boys tie several crusts of bread together with thread, and lay this trap in the chicken yard of Bolte, an old widow, causing all the chickens to become fatally entangled.
This prank is remarkably similar to the eighth history of the classic German prankster tales of Till Eulenspiegel.
As the widow cooks her chickens, the boys sneak onto her roof. When she leaves her kitchen momentarily, the boys steal the chickens using a fishing pole down the chimney. The widow hears her dog barking and hurries upstairs, finds the hearth empty and beats the dog.
The boys torment Böck, a well-liked tailor who has a fast stream flowing in front of his house. They saw through the planks of his wooden bridge, making a precarious gap, then taunt him by making goat noises (a pun on his name being similar to the zoological expression 'buck'), until he runs outside. The bridge breaks; the tailor is swept away and nearly drowns (but for two geese, which he grabs a hold of and which fly high to safety).
Although Till removes the planks of the bridge instead of sawing them there are some similarities to Till Eulenspiegel (32nd History).
While their devout teacher, Lämpel, is busy at church, the boys invade his home and fill his favorite pipe with gunpowder. When he lights the pipe, the blast knocks him unconscious, blackens his skin and burns away all his hair. But: "Time that comes will quick repair; yet the pipe retains its share."
The boys collect bags full of May bugs, which they promptly deposit in their Uncle Fritz's bed. Uncle is nearly asleep when he feels the bugs walking on his nose. Horrified, he goes into a frenzy, killing them all before going back to sleep.
The boys invade a closed bakery to steal some Easter sweets. Attempting to steal pretzels, they fall into a vat of dough. The baker returns, catches the breaded pair, and bakes them. But they survive, and escape by gnawing through their crusts.
Hiding out in the grain storage area of a farmer, Mecke, the boys slit some grain sacks. Carrying away one of the sacks, farmer Mecke immediately notices the problem. He puts the boys in the sack instead, then takes it to the mill. The boys are ground to bits and devoured by the miller's ducks. Later, no one expresses regret.
"Max und Moritz" was adapted into a ballet by Richard Mohaupt and Alfredo Bortuluzzi. In 1956 Norbert Schultze adapted it into a straightforward children's film, "Max und Moritz" (1956).
in German for a single work
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May Day
May Day is a public holiday usually celebrated on 1 May or the first Monday of May. It is an ancient festival of spring and a current traditional spring holiday in many European cultures. Dances, singing, and cake are usually part of the festivities.
In 1889, May Day was chosen as the date for International Workers' Day by the Socialists and Communists of the Second International to commemorate the Haymarket affair in Chicago. International Workers' Day is also called "May Day", but it is a different celebration from the traditional May Day.
The earliest known May celebrations appeared with the "Floralia", festival of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers, held from 27 April – 3 May during the Roman Republic era, and the "Maiouma" or "Maiuma", a festival celebrating Dionysus and Aphrodite held every three years during the month of May. The Floralia opened with theatrical performances. In the Floralia, Ovid says that hares and goats were released as part of the festivities. Persius writes that crowds were pelted with vetches, beans, and lupins. A ritual called the "Florifertum" was performed on either 27 April or 3 May, during which a bundle of wheat ears was carried into a shrine, though it is not clear if this devotion was made to Flora or Ceres. Floralia concluded with competitive events and spectacles, and a sacrifice to Flora.
Maiouma was celebrated at least as early as the 2nd century AD, when records show expenses for the month-long festival were appropriated by Emperor Commodus. According to the 6th-century chronicles of John Malalas, the Maiouma was a "nocturnal dramatic festival, held every three years and known as Orgies, that is, the Mysteries of Dionysus and Aphrodite" and that it was "known as the Maioumas because it is celebrated in the month of May-Artemisios". During this time, enough money was set aside by the government for torches, lights, and other expenses to cover a thirty-day festival of "all-night revels." The Maiouma was celebrated with splendorous banquets and offerings. Its reputation for licentiousness caused it to be suppressed during the reign of Emperor Constantine, though a less debauched version of it was briefly restored during the reigns of Arcadius and Honorius, only to be suppressed again during the same period.
A later May festival celebrated in Germanic countries, Walpurgis Night, commemorates the official canonization of Saint Walpurga on 1 May 870. In Gaelic culture, the evening of April 30th was the celebration of Beltane (which translates to "lucky fire"), the start of the summer season. First attested in 900 AD, the celebration mainly focused on the symbolic use of fire to bless cattle and other livestock as they were moved to summer pastures. This custom continued into the early 19th century, during which time cattle would be made to jump over fires to protect their milk from being stolen by fairies. People would also leap over the fires for luck.
Since the 18th century, many Roman Catholics have observed May – and May Day – with various May devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In works of art, school skits, and so forth, Mary's head will often be adorned with flowers in a May crowning. 1 May is also one of two feast days of the Catholic patron saint of workers St Joseph the Worker, a carpenter, husband to Mother Mary, and surrogate father of Jesus. Replacing another feast to St. Joseph, this date was chosen by Pope Pius XII in 1955 as a counterpoint to the communist International Workers Day celebrations on May Day.
The best known modern May Day traditions, observed both in Europe and North America, include dancing around the maypole and crowning the Queen of May. Fading in popularity since the late 20th century is the tradition of giving of "May baskets," small baskets of sweets or flowers, usually left anonymously on neighbours' doorsteps.
In the late 20th century, many neopagans began reconstructing some of the older pagan festivals and combining them with more recently developed European secular and Catholic traditions, and celebrating May Day as a pagan religious festival.
On May Day, Bulgarians celebrate Irminden (or Yeremiya, Eremiya, Irima, Zamski den). The holiday is associated with snakes and lizards and rituals are made in order to protect people from them. The name of the holiday comes from the prophet Jeremiah, but its origins are most probably pagan.
It is said that on the days of the Holy Forty or Annunciation snakes come out of their burrows, and on Irminden their king comes out. Old people believe that those working in the fields on this day will be bitten by a snake in summer.
In western Bulgaria people light fires, jump over them and make noises to scare snakes. Another custom is to prepare "podnici" (special clay pots made for baking bread).
This day is especially observed by pregnant women so that their offspring do not catch "yeremiya"—an illness due to evil powers.
In Czech Republic, May Day is traditionally considered a holiday of love and May as a month of love. The celebrations of spring are held on April 30 when a maypole ("májka" in Czech) is erected—a tradition possibly connected to Beltane, since bonfires are also lit on the same day. The event is similar to German Walpurgisnacht, its public holiday on April 30.
On May 31, the maypole is taken down in an event called Maypole Felling.
On May 1st, couples in love kiss under a blooming tree. According to the ethnographer Klára Posekaná, this is not an old habit. It most likely originated around the beginning of the 20th century in an urban environment, perhaps in connection with Karel Hynek Mácha's poem Máj (which is often recited during these days) and Petřín. This is usually done under a cherry, an apple or a birch tree.
May Day or "Spring Day" ("Kevadpüha") is a national holiday in Estonia celebrating the arrival of spring.
More traditional festivities take place throughout the night before and into the early hours of 1 May, on the Walpurgis Night ("Volbriöö").
In Finland, Walpurgis night (') ("") is one of the four biggest holidays along with Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, and Midsummer ('). Walpurgis witnesses the biggest carnival-style festival held in Finland's cities and towns. The celebrations, which begin on the evening of 30 April and continue on 1 May, typically centre on the consumption of sima, sparkling wine and other alcoholic beverages. Student traditions, particularly those of engineering students, are one of the main characteristics of '. Since the end of the 19th century, this traditional upper-class feast has been appropriated by university students. Many ' (university-preparatory high school) alumni wear the black and white student cap and many higher education students wear student coveralls. One tradition is to drink sima, a home-made low-alcohol mead, along with freshly cooked funnel cakes.
On 1 May 1561, King Charles IX of France received a lily of the valley as a lucky charm. He decided to offer a lily of the valley each year to the ladies of the court. At the beginning of the 20th century, it became custom to give a sprig of lily of the valley, a symbol of springtime, on 1 May. The government permits individuals and workers' organisations to sell them tax-free on that single day. Nowadays, people may present loved ones either with bunches of lily of the valley or dog rose flowers.
In rural regions of Germany, especially the Harz Mountains, Walpurgisnacht celebrations of pagan origin are traditionally held on the night before May Day, including bonfires and the wrapping of a "Maibaum" (maypole). Young people use this opportunity to party, while the day itself is used by many families to get some fresh air. Motto: "Tanz in den Mai" (""Dance into May"").
In the Rhineland, 1 May is also celebrated by the delivery of a maypole, a tree covered in streamers to the house of a girl the night before. The tree is typically from a love interest, though a tree wrapped only in white streamers is a sign of dislike. Women usually place roses or rice in the form of a heart at the house of their beloved one. It is common to stick the heart to a window or place it in front of the doormat. In leap years, it is the responsibility of the women to place the maypole. All the action is usually done secretly and it is an individual's choice whether to give a hint of their identity or stay anonymous.
May Day was not established as a public holiday until the Third Reich declared 1 May a “national workers’ day” in 1933. As Labour Day, many political parties and unions host activities related to work and employment.
1 May is a day that celebrates Spring.
Maios (Latin Maius), the month of May, took its name from the goddess Maia (Gr ), a Greek and Roman goddess of fertility. The day of Maios (Modern Greek Πρωτομαγιά) celebrates the final victory of the summer against winter as the victory of life against death. The celebration is similar to an ancient ritual associated with another minor demi-god Adonis which also celebrated the revival of nature. There is today some conflation with yet another tradition, the revival or marriage of Dionysus (the Greek God of theatre and wine-making). This event, however, was celebrated in ancient times not in May but in association with the Anthesteria, a festival held in February and dedicated to the goddess of agriculture Demeter and her daughter Persephone. Persephone emerged every year at the end of Winter from the Underworld. The Anthesteria was a festival of souls, plants and flowers, and Persephone's coming to earth from Hades marked the rebirth of nature, a common theme in all these traditions.
What remains of the customs today, echoes these traditions of antiquity. A common, until recently, May Day custom involved the annual revival of a youth called Adonis, or alternatively of Dionysus, or of Maios (in Modern Greek Μαγιόπουλο, the Son of Maia). In a simple theatrical ritual, the significance of which has long been forgotten, a chorus of young girls sang a song over a youth lying on the ground, representing Adonis, Dionysus or Maios. At the end of the song, the youth rose up and a flower wreath was placed on his head.
The most common aspect of modern May Day celebrations is the preparation of a flower wreath from wild flowers, although as a result of urbanisation there is an increasing trend to buy wreaths from flower shops. The flowers are placed on the wreath against a background of green leaves and the wreath is hung either on the entrance to the family house/apartment or on a balcony. It remains there until midsummer night. On that night, the flower wreaths are set alight in bonfires known as St John's fires. Youths leap over the flames consuming the flower wreaths. This custom has also practically disappeared, like the theatrical revival of Adonis/Dionysus/Maios, as a result of rising urban traffic and with no alternative public grounds in most Greek city neighbourhoods, not to mention potential conflicts with demonstrating workers.
May Day has been celebrated in Ireland since pagan times as the feast of Beltane (Bealtaine) and in latter times as Mary's day. Traditionally, bonfires were lit to mark the coming of summer and to grant luck to people and livestock. Officially Irish May Day holiday is the first Monday in May. Old traditions such as bonfires are no longer widely observed, though the practice still persists in some places across the country. Limerick, Clare and many other people in other counties still keep on this tradition, including areas in Dublin city such as Ringsend.
In Italy it is called "Calendimaggio" or "cantar maggio" a seasonal feast held to celebrate the arrival of spring. The event takes its name from the period in which it takes place, that is, the beginning of May, from the Latin "calenda maia". The Calendimaggio is a tradition still alive today in many regions of Italy as an allegory of the return to life and rebirth: among these Piedmont, Liguria, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna (for example, is celebrated in the area of the "Quattro Province" or Piacenza, Pavia, Alessandria and Genoa), Tuscany and Umbria. This magical-propitiatory ritual is often performed during an almsgiving in which, in exchange for gifts (traditionally eggs, wine, food or sweets), the Maggi (or maggerini) sing auspicious verses to the inhabitants of the houses they visit. Throughout the Italian peninsula these "Il Maggio" couplets are very diverse—most are love songs with a strong romantic theme, that young people sang to celebrate the arrival of spring. Symbols of spring revival are the trees (alder, golden rain) and flowers (violets, roses), mentioned in the verses of the songs, and with which the maggerini adorn themselves. In particular the plant alder, which grows along the rivers, is considered the symbol of life and that's why it is often present in the ritual.
Calendimaggio can be historically noted in Tuscany as a mythical character who had a predominant role and met many of the attributes of the god Belenus. In Lucania, the "Maggi" have a clear auspicious character of pagan origin. In Syracuse, Sicily, the "Albero della Cuccagna" (cf. "Greasy pole") is held during the month of May, a feast celebrated to commemorate the victory over the Athenians led by Nicias. However, Angelo de Gubernatis, in his work "Mythology of Plants", believes that without doubt the festival was previous to that of said victory.
It is a celebration that dates back to ancient peoples, and is very integrated with the rhythms of nature, such as the Celts (celebrating Beltane), Etruscans and Ligures, in which the arrival of summer was of great importance.
In Poland, there is a state holiday on 1 May. It is currently celebrated without a specific connotation, and as such it is May Day. However, due to historical connotations, most of the celebrations are focused around Labour Day festivities. It is customary for labour activists and left-wing political parties to organize parades in cities and towns across Poland on this day. The holiday is also commonly referred to as "Labour Day" ("Święto Pracy").
In Poland, May Day is closely followed by May 3rd Constitution Day. These two dates combined often result in a long weekend called "Majówka". People often travel, and "Majówka" is unofficially considered the start of the barbecuing season in Poland. Between these two, on 2 May, though formerly a working day, there is now a patriotic holiday, the Day of the Polish Flag (), introduced by a Parliamentary Act of February 20, 2004. May Day has a public holiday, too.
"Maias" is a superstition throughout Portugal, with special focus on the northern territories and rarely elsewhere. Maias is the dominant naming in Northern Portugal, but it may be referred to by other names, including Dia das Bruxas (Witches' day), O Burro (the Donkey, referring to an evil spirit) or the last of April, as the local traditions preserved to this day occur on that evening only. People put the yellow flowers of Portuguese brooms, the bushes are known as giestas. The flowers of the bush are known as Maias, which are placed on doors or gates and every doorway of houses, windows, granaries, currently also cars, which the populace collect on the evening of 30 April when the Portuguese brooms are blooming, to defend those places from bad spirits, witches and the evil eye. The placement of the May flower or bush in the doorway must be done before midnight.
These festivities are a continuum of the "Os Maios" of Galiza. In ancient times, this was done while playing traditional night-music. In some places, children were dressed in these flowers and went from place to place begging for money or bread. On May 1, people also used to sing "Cantigas de Maio", traditional songs related to this day and the whole month of May.
The origin of this tradition can be traced to the Catholic Church story of Mary and Joseph fleeing to Egypt to protect Jesus from Herod. It was said that brooms could be found at the door of the house holding Jesus, but Herod soldiers arrived to the place, they found every door decorated with brooms.
On May Day, the Romanians celebrate the "arminden" (or "armindeni"), the beginning of summer, symbolically tied with the protection of crops and farm animals. The name comes from Slavonic "Jeremiinŭ dĭnĭ", meaning prophet Jeremiah's day, but the celebration rites and habits of this day are apotropaic and pagan (possibly originating in the cult of the god Pan).
The day is also called "ziua pelinului" ("mugwort day") or "ziua bețivilor" ("drunkards' day") and it is celebrated to ensure good wine in autumn and, for people and farm animals alike, good health and protection from the elements of nature (storms, hail, illness, pests). People would have parties in natural surroundings, with "lăutari" (fiddlers) for those who could afford it. Then it is customary to roast and eat lamb, along with new mutton cheese, and to drink mugwort-flavoured wine, or just red wine, to refresh the blood and get protection from diseases. On the way back, the men wear lilac or mugwort flowers on their hats.
Other apotropaic rites include, in some areas of the country, people washing their faces with the morning dew (for good health) and adorning the gates for good luck and abundance with green branches or with birch saplings (for the houses with maiden girls). The entries to the animals' shelters are also adorned with green branches. All branches are left in place until the wheat harvest when they are used in the fire which will bake the first bread from the new wheat.
On May Day eve, country women do not work in the field as well as in the house to avoid devastating storms and hail coming down on the village.
"Arminden" is also "ziua boilor" (oxen day) and thus the animals are not to be used for work, or else they could die or their owners could get ill.
It is said that the weather is always good on May Day to allow people to celebrate.
"Prvomajski uranak" (Reveille on May 1st) is a folk tradition and feast that consists of the fact that on 1 May, people go in the nature or even leave the day before and spend the night with a camp fire. Most of the time, a dish is cooked in a kettle or in a barbecue. Among Serbs this holiday is widespread. Almost every town in Serbia has its own traditional first-of-may excursion sites, and most often these are green areas outside the city.
May Day is celebrated throughout the country as "Los Mayos" (lit. "the Mays") often in a similar way to "Fiesta de las Cruces" in many parts of Hispanic America. By way of example, in Galicia, the festival ("os maios", in the local language) consists of different representations around a decorated tree or sculpture. People sing popular songs (also called "maios",) making mentions to social and political events during the past year, sometimes under the form of a converse, while they walk around the sculpture with the percussion of two sticks. In Lugo and in the village of Vilagarcía de Arousa it was usual to ask a tip to the attendees, which used to be a handful of dry chestnuts ("castañas maiolas"), walnuts or hazelnuts. Today the tradition became a competition where the best sculptures and songs receive a prize.
In the Galician city of Ourense this day is celebrated traditionally on 3 May, the day of the Holy Cross, that in the Christian tradition replaced the tree "where the health, life and resurrection are," according to the introit of that day's mass.
The more traditional festivities have moved to the day before, Walpurgis Night ("Valborgsmässoafton"), known in some locales as simply "Last of April" and often celebrated with bonfires and a good bit of drinking. The first of May is instead celebrated as International Workers' Day.
Traditional English May Day rites and celebrations include crowning a May Queen and celebrations involving a maypole, around which dancers often circle with ribbons. Historically, Morris dancing has been linked to May Day celebrations. The earliest records of maypole celebrations date to the 14th century, and by the 15th century the maypole tradition was well established in southern Britain.
The spring bank holiday on the first Monday in May was created in 1978; May Day itself1 Mayis, not a public holiday in England (unless it falls on a Monday). In February 2011, the UK Parliament was reported to be considering scrapping the bank holiday associated with May Day, replacing it with a bank holiday in October, possibly coinciding with Trafalgar Day (celebrated on October 21), to create a "United Kingdom Day". Similarly, attempts were made by the John Major government in 1993 to abolish the May Day holiday and replace it with Trafalgar Day.
Unlike the other Bank Holidays and common law holidays, the first Monday in May is taken off from (state) schools by itself, and not as part of a half-term or end of term holiday. This is because it has no Christian significance and does not otherwise fit into the usual school holiday pattern. (By contrast, the Easter Holiday can start as late—relative to Easter—as Good Friday, if Easter falls early in the year; or finish as early—relative to Easter—as Easter Monday, if Easter falls late in the year, because of the supreme significance of Good Friday and Easter Day to Christianity.)
May Day was abolished and its celebration banned by Puritan parliaments during the Interregnum, but reinstated with the restoration of Charles II in 1660. 1 May 1707, was the day the Act of Union came into effect, joining England and Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.
In Oxford, it is a centuries-old tradition for May Morning revellers to gather below the Great Tower of Magdalen College at 6am to listen to the college choir sing traditional madrigals as a conclusion to the previous night's celebrations. Since the 1980s some people then jump off Magdalen Bridge into the River Cherwell. For some years, the bridge has been closed on 1 May to prevent people from jumping, as the water under the bridge is only deep and jumping from the bridge has resulted in serious injury in the past. There are still people who climb the barriers and leap into the water, causing themselves injury.
In Durham, students of the University of Durham gather on Prebend's Bridge to see the sunrise and enjoy festivities, folk music, dancing, madrigal singing and a barbecue breakfast. This is an emerging Durham tradition, with patchy observance since 2001.
Kingsbury Episcopi, Somerset, has seen its yearly May Day Festival celebrations on the May bank holiday Monday burgeon in popularity in the recent years. Since it was reinstated 21 years ago it has grown in size, and on 5 May 2014 thousands of revellers were attracted from all over the south-west to enjoy the festivities, with BBC Somerset covering the celebrations. These include traditional maypole dancing and morris dancing, as well as contemporary music acts.
Whitstable, Kent, hosts a good example of more traditional May Day festivities, where the Jack in the Green festival was revived in 1976 and continues to lead an annual procession of morris dancers through the town on the May bank holiday. A separate revival occurred in Hastings in 1983 and has become a major event in the town calendar. A traditional sweeps festival is performed over the May bank holiday in Rochester, Kent, where the Jack in the Green is woken at dawn on 1 May by Morris dancers.
At 7:15 p.m. on 1 May each year, the Kettle Bridge Clogs morris dancing side dance across Barming Bridge (otherwise known as the Kettle Bridge), which spans the River Medway near Maidstone, to mark the official start of their morris dancing season.
Also known as Astoria Day in northern parts of rural Cumbria. A celebration of unity and female bonding. Although not very well known, it is often caused by a huge celebration.
The Maydayrun involves thousands of motorbikes taking a trip from Greater London (Locksbottom) to the Hastings seafront, East Sussex. The event has been taking place for almost 30 years now and has grown in interest from around the country, both commercially and publicly. The event is not officially organised; the police only manage the traffic, and volunteers manage the parking.
Padstow in Cornwall holds its annual Obby-Oss (Hobby Horse) day of festivities. This is believed to be one of the oldest fertility rites in the UK; revellers dance with the Oss through the streets of the town and even though the private gardens of the citizens, accompanied by accordion players and followers dressed in white with red or blue sashes who sing the traditional "May Day" song. The whole town is decorated with springtime greenery, and every year thousands of onlookers attend. Before the 19th century, distinctive May Day celebrations were widespread throughout West Cornwall, and are being revived in St. Ives and Penzance.
Kingsand, Cawsand and Millbrook in Cornwall celebrate Flower Boat Ritual on the May Day bank holiday. A model of the ship "The Black Prince" is covered in flowers and is taken in a procession from the Quay at Millbrook to the beach at Cawsand where it is cast adrift. The houses in the villages are decorated with flowers and people traditionally wear red and white clothes. There are further celebrations in Cawsand Square with Morris dancing and May pole dancing.
May Day has been celebrated in Scotland for centuries. It was previously closely associated with the Beltane festival. Reference to this earlier celebration is found in poem 'Peblis to the Play', contained in the Maitland Manuscripts of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Scots poetry:
At Beltane, quhen ilk bodie bownis
To Peblis to the Play,
To heir the singin and the soundis;
The solace, suth to say,
Be firth and forrest furth they found
Thay graythis tham full gay;
God wait that wald they do that stound,
For it was their feast day the day they celebrate May Day,
Thay said, [...]
The poem describes the celebration in the town of Peebles in the Scottish Borders, which continues to stage a parade and pageant each year, including the annual ‘Common Riding’, which takes place in many towns throughout the Borders. As well as the crowning of a Beltane Queen each year, it is custom to sing ‘The Beltane Song’.
John Jamieson, in his "Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language" (1808) describes some of the May Day/Beltane customs which persisted in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in parts of Scotland, which he noted were beginning to die out. In the nineteenth century, folklorist Alexander Carmichael (1832–1912), collected the song "Am Beannachadh Bealltain" ("The Beltane Blessing") in his "Carmina Gadelica", which he heard from a crofter in South Uist.
Scottish May Day/Beltane celebrations have been somewhat revived since the late twentieth century. Both Edinburgh and Glasgow organise May Day festivals and rallies. In Edinburgh, the Beltane Fire Festival is held on the evening of May eve and into the early hours of May Day on the city's Calton Hill. An older Edinburgh tradition has it that young women who climb Arthur's Seat and wash their faces in the morning dew will have lifelong beauty. At the University of St Andrews, some of the students gather on the beach late on 30 April and run into the North Sea at sunrise on May Day, occasionally naked. This is accompanied by torchlit processions and much elated celebration.
In Wales the first day of May is known as "Calan Mai" or "Calan Haf", and parallels the festival of Beltane and other May Day traditions in Europe.
Traditions would start the night before ("Nos Galan Haf") with bonfires, and is considered a "Ysbrydnos" or "spirit night" when people would gather hawthorn ("draenen wen") and flowers to decorate their houses, celebrating new growth and fertility. While on May Day celebrations would include summer dancing ("dawnsio haf") and May carols ("carolau mai" or "carolau haf") othertimes referred to as "singing under the wall" ("canu dan y pared)," May Day was also a time for officially opening a village green (twmpath chwarae).
May Day is celebrated in some parts of the provinces of British Columbia, Quebec, New Brunswick and Ontario.
Toronto
In Toronto, on the morning of 1 May, various Morris Dancing troops from Toronto and Hamilton gather on the road by Grenadier Cafe, in High Park to "dance in the May". The dancers and crowd then gather together and sing traditional May Day songs such as Hal-An-Tow and Padstow.
British Columbia
Celebrations often take place not on 1 May but during the Victoria Day long weekend, later in the month and when the weather is likely to be better. The longest continually observed May Day in the British Commonwealth is held in the city of New Westminster, BC. There, the first May Day celebration was held on 4 May 1870.
May Day was also celebrated by some early European settlers of the American continent. In some parts of the United States, May baskets are made. These are small baskets usually filled with flowers or treats and left at someone's doorstep. The giver rings the bell and runs away.
Modern May Day ceremonies in the U.S. vary greatly from region to region and many unite both the holiday's "Green Root" (pagan) and "Red Root" (labour) traditions.
May Day celebrations were common at women's colleges and academic institutions in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, a tradition that continues at Bryn Mawr College and Brenau University to this day.
In Minneapolis, the May Day Parade and Festival is presented annually by In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre on the first Sunday in May, and draws around 50,000 people to Powderhorn Park. On 1 May itself, local Morris Dance sides converge on an overlook of the Mississippi River at dawn, and then spend the remainder of the day dancing around the metro area.
Hawaii
In Hawaii, May Day is also known as Lei Day, and it is normally set aside as a day to celebrate island culture in general and the culture of the Native Hawaiians in particular. Invented by poet and local newspaper columnist Don Blanding, the first Lei Day was celebrated on 1 May 1927 in Honolulu. Leonard "Red" and Ruth Hawk composed "May Day Is Lei Day in Hawai'i," the traditional holiday song.
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Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution
In physics (in particular in statistical mechanics), the Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution is a particular probability distribution named after James Clerk Maxwell and Ludwig Boltzmann.
It was first defined and used for describing particle speeds in idealized gases, where the particles move freely inside a stationary container without interacting with one another, except for very brief collisions in which they exchange energy and momentum with each other or with their thermal environment. The term "particle" in this context refers to gaseous particles only (atoms or molecules), and the system of particles is assumed to have reached thermodynamic equilibrium. The energies of such particles follow what is known as Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics, and the statistical distribution of speeds is derived by equating particle energies with kinetic energy.
Mathematically, the Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution is the chi distribution with three degrees of freedom (the components of the velocity vector in Euclidean space), with a scale parameter measuring speeds in units proportional to the square root of formula_8 (the ratio of temperature and particle mass).
The Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution is a result of the kinetic theory of gases, which provides a simplified explanation of many fundamental gaseous properties, including pressure and diffusion. The Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution applies fundamentally to particle velocities in three dimensions, but turns out to depend only on the speed (the magnitude of the velocity) of the particles. A particle speed probability distribution indicates which speeds are more likely: a particle will have a speed selected randomly from the distribution, and is more likely to be within one range of speeds than another. The kinetic theory of gases applies to the classical ideal gas, which is an idealization of real gases. In real gases, there are various effects (e.g., van der Waals interactions, vortical flow, relativistic speed limits, and quantum exchange interactions) that can make their speed distribution different from the Maxwell–Boltzmann form. However, rarefied gases at ordinary temperatures behave very nearly like an ideal gas and the Maxwell speed distribution is an excellent approximation for such gases. Ideal plasmas, which are ionized gases of sufficiently low density, frequently also have particle distributions that are partially or entirely Maxwellian.
The distribution was first derived by Maxwell in 1860 on heuristic grounds.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19830
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Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was a British stateswoman who served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century and the first woman to hold that office. A Soviet journalist dubbed her the "Iron Lady", a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. As Prime Minister, she implemented policies known as Thatcherism.
Thatcher studied chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford, and worked briefly as a research chemist, before becoming a barrister. She was elected Member of Parliament for Finchley in 1959. Edward Heath appointed her secretary of state for education and science in his 1970–74 government. In 1975, she defeated Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election to become leader of the Opposition, the first woman to lead a major political party in the United Kingdom. On becoming prime minister after winning the 1979 general election, Thatcher introduced a series of economic policies intended to reverse high unemployment and Britain's struggles in the wake of the Winter of Discontent and an ongoing recession. Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasised deregulation (particularly of the financial sector), flexible labour markets, the privatisation of state-owned companies, and reducing the power and influence of trade unions. Her popularity in her first years in office waned amid recession and rising unemployment, until victory in the 1982 Falklands War and the recovering economy brought a resurgence of support, resulting in her landslide re-election in 1983. She survived an assassination attempt by the Provisional IRA in the 1984 Brighton hotel bombing and achieved a political victory against the National Union of Mineworkers in the 1984–85 miners' strike.
Thatcher was re-elected for a third term with another landslide in 1987, but her subsequent support for the Community Charge ("poll tax") was widely unpopular, and her increasingly Eurosceptic views on the European Community were not shared by others in her Cabinet. She resigned as prime minister and party leader in November 1990, after Michael Heseltine launched a challenge to her leadership (characterised by journalist Simon Heffer as "a rare coup d’état at the top of the British politics: the first since Lloyd George sawed Asquith off at the knees in 1916").
After retiring from the Commons in 1992, she was given a life peerage as Baroness Thatcher (of Kesteven in the County of Lincolnshire) which entitled her to sit in the House of Lords. In 2013, she died of a stroke at the Ritz Hotel in London, at the age of 87.
Although a controversial figure in British political culture, Thatcher is nonetheless viewed favourably in historical rankings of British prime ministers. Her tenure constituted a realignment towards neoliberal policies in the United Kingdom and debate over the complicated legacy of Thatcherism persists into the 21st century.
Margaret Hilda Roberts was born on 13 October 1925, in Grantham, Lincolnshire. Her parents were Alfred Roberts (1892–1970), from Northamptonshire, and Beatrice Ethel (née Stephenson, 1888–1960), from Lincolnshire. Her father's maternal grandmother Catherine Sullivan was born in County Kerry, Ireland.
Thatcher spent her childhood in Grantham, where her father owned a tobacconists and a grocery shop. In 1938, prior to the Second World War, the Roberts family briefly gave sanctuary to a teenage Jewish girl who had escaped Nazi Germany. Margaret, with her pen-friending elder sister Muriel, saved pocket money to help pay for the teenager's journey.
Alfred Roberts was an alderman and a Methodist local preacher, and brought up his daughter as a strict Wesleyan Methodist, attending the Finkin Street Methodist Church. He came from a Liberal family but stood (as was then customary in local government) as an Independent. He served as Mayor of Grantham in 1945–46 and lost his position as alderman in 1952 after the Labour Party won its first majority on Grantham Council in 1950.
Margaret Roberts attended Huntingtower Road Primary School and won a scholarship to Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School, a grammar school. Her school reports showed hard work and continual improvement; her extracurricular activities included the piano, field hockey, poetry recitals, swimming and walking. She was head girl in 1942–43. In her upper sixth year she applied for a scholarship to study chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford, a women's college, and received a place after another candidate withdrew.
Roberts arrived at Oxford in 1943 and graduated in 1947 with Second-Class Honours, in the four-year Chemistry Bachelor of Science degree, specialising in X-ray crystallography under the supervision of Dorothy Hodgkin. Her dissertation was on the structure of the antibiotic gramicidin. Roberts did not only study chemistry as she intended to be a chemist only for a short period of time, already thinking about law and politics. She was reportedly prouder of becoming the first prime minister with a science degree than becoming the first woman prime minister. While prime minister she attempted to preserve Somerville as a women's college.
During her time at Oxford, Roberts was noted for her isolated and serious attitude. Her first boyfriend, Tony Bray (1926–2014), recalled that she was "very thoughtful and a very good conversationalist. That's probably what interested me. She was good at general subjects". Roberts's enthusiasm for politics as a girl made him think of her as "unusual". Bray met her parents and described them as "slightly austere" and "very proper".
At the end of the term at Oxford, Bray became more distant and hoped for their relationship to "fizzle out". He recalled that he thought Roberts had taken the relationship more seriously than he had done. When asked about Bray in later life, Thatcher prevaricated but acknowledged the circumstances between herself and Bray.
Roberts became President of the Oxford University Conservative Association in 1946. She was influenced at university by political works such as Friedrich Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom" (1944), which condemned economic intervention by government as a precursor to an authoritarian state.
After graduating, Roberts moved to Colchester in Essex to work as a research chemist for BX Plastics near Manningtree. In 1948 she applied for a job at Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), but was rejected after the personnel department assessed her as "headstrong, obstinate and dangerously self-opinionated". argues that her understanding of modern scientific research would later impact her views as prime minister.
Roberts joined the local Conservative Association and attended the party conference at Llandudno, Wales, in 1948, as a representative of the University Graduate Conservative Association. Meanwhile, she became a high-ranking affiliate of the Vermin Club, a group of grassroots Conservatives formed in response to a derogatory comment made by Aneurin Bevan. One of her Oxford friends was also a friend of the Chair of the Dartford Conservative Association in Kent, who were looking for candidates. Officials of the association were so impressed by her that they asked her to apply, even though she was not on the party's approved list; she was selected in January 1950 (aged 24) and added to the approved list "post ante".
At a dinner following her formal adoption as Conservative candidate for Dartford in February 1949 she met divorcé Denis Thatcher, a successful and wealthy businessman, who drove her to her Essex train. After their first meeting she described him to Muriel as "not a very attractive creature – very reserved but quite nice". In preparation for the election Roberts moved to Dartford, where she supported herself by working as a research chemist for J. Lyons and Co. in Hammersmith, part of a team developing emulsifiers for ice cream. She married at Wesley's Chapel and her children were baptised there, but she and her husband began attending Church of England services and would later convert to Anglicanism.
In the 1950 and 1951 general elections, Roberts was the Conservative candidate for the Labour seat of Dartford. The local party selected her as its candidate because, though not a dynamic public speaker, Roberts was well-prepared and fearless in her answers; prospective candidate Bill Deedes recalled: "Once she opened her mouth, the rest of us began to look rather second-rate." She attracted media attention as the youngest and the only female candidate. She lost on both occasions to Norman Dodds, but reduced the Labour majority by 6,000, and then a further 1,000. During the campaigns, she was supported by her parents and by future husband Denis Thatcher, whom she married in December 1951. Denis funded his wife's studies for the bar; she qualified as a barrister in 1953 and specialised in taxation. Later that same year their twins Carol and Mark were born, delivered prematurely by Caesarean section.
In 1954, Thatcher was defeated when she sought selection to be the Conservative party candidate for the Orpington by-election of January 1955. She chose not to stand as a candidate in the 1955 general election, in later years stating: "I really just felt the twins were ... only two, I really felt that it was too soon. I couldn't do that." Afterwards, Thatcher began looking for a Conservative safe seat and was selected as the candidate for Finchley in April 1958 (narrowly beating Ian Montagu Fraser). She was elected as MP for the seat after a hard campaign in the 1959 election. Benefiting from her fortunate result in a lottery for backbenchers to propose new legislation, Thatcher's maiden speech was, unusually, in support of her private member's bill, the Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960, requiring local authorities to hold their council meetings in public; the bill was successful and became law. In 1961 she went against the Conservative Party's official position by voting for the restoration of birching as a judicial corporal punishment.
Thatcher's talent and drive caused her to be mentioned as a future prime minister in her early 20s although she herself was more pessimistic, stating as late as 1970: "There will not be a woman prime minister in my lifetime – the male population is too prejudiced." In October 1961 she was promoted to the frontbench as parliamentary undersecretary at the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance by Harold Macmillan. Thatcher was the youngest woman in history to receive such a post, and among the first MPs elected in 1959 to be promoted. After the Conservatives lost the 1964 election she became spokeswoman on Housing and Land, in which position she advocated her party's policy of giving tenants the Right to Buy their council houses. She moved to the Shadow Treasury team in 1966 and, as Treasury spokeswoman, opposed Labour's mandatory price and income controls, arguing they would unintentionally produce effects that would distort the economy.
Jim Prior suggested Thatcher as a Shadow Cabinet member after the Conservatives' 1966 defeat, but party leader Edward Heath and Chief Whip William Whitelaw eventually chose Mervyn Pike as the Conservative Shadow Cabinet's sole woman member. At the 1966 Conservative Party conference, Thatcher criticised the high-tax policies of the Labour government as being steps "not only towards Socialism, but towards Communism", arguing that lower taxes served as an incentive to hard work. Thatcher was one of the few Conservative MPs to support Leo Abse's bill to decriminalise male homosexuality. She voted in favour of David Steel's bill to legalise abortion, as well as a ban on hare coursing. She supported the retention of capital punishment and voted against the relaxation of divorce laws.
In 1967, the United States Embassy in London chose Thatcher to take part in the International Visitor Leadership Program (then called the Foreign Leader Program), a professional exchange programme that gave her the opportunity to spend about six weeks visiting various US cities and political figures as well as institutions such as the International Monetary Fund. Although she was not yet a Shadow Cabinet member, the embassy reportedly described her to the State Department as a possible future prime minister. The description helped Thatcher meet with prominent persons during a busy itinerary focused on economic issues, including Paul Samuelson, Walt Rostow, Pierre-Paul Schweitzer and Nelson Rockefeller. Following the visit, Heath appointed Thatcher to the Shadow Cabinet as Fuel and Power spokeswoman. Prior to the 1970 general election, she was promoted to Shadow Transport spokeswoman and later to Education.
In 1968, Enoch Powell delivered his "Rivers of Blood" speech in which he strongly criticised Commonwealth immigration to the United Kingdom and the then-proposed Race Relations Bill. When Heath telephoned Thatcher to inform her that he was going to sack Powell from the Shadow Cabinet, she recalled that she "really thought that it was better to let things cool down for the present rather than heighten the crisis". She believed that his main points about Commonwealth immigration were correct and that the selected quotations from his speech had been taken out of context. In a 1991 interview for "Today", Thatcher stated that she thought Powell had "made a valid argument, if in sometimes regrettable terms".
Around this time she gave her first Commons speech as a Shadow Transport minister and highlighted the need for investment in British Rail. She argued: " ... if we build bigger and better roads, they would soon be saturated with more vehicles and we would be no nearer solving the problem." Thatcher made her first visit to the Soviet Union in the summer of 1969 as the Opposition Transport spokeswoman, and in October delivered a speech celebrating her ten years in Parliament. A couple of months later, in early 1970, she told "The Finchley Press" that she would like to see a "reversal of the permissive society".
The Conservative Party led by Edward Heath won the 1970 general election, and Thatcher was appointed to the Cabinet as secretary of state for education and science. Thatcher caused controversy when after only a few days in office she withdrew Labour's Circular 10/65 which attempted to force comprehensivisation, without going through a consultation progress. She was highly criticised for the speed in which she carried this out. Consequently, she drafted her own new policy (Circular 10/70) which ensured that local authorities were not forced to go comprehensive. Her new policy was not meant to stop the development of new comprehensives; she said: "We shall ... expect plans to be based on educational considerations rather than on the comprehensive principle."
Thatcher supported Lord Rothschild's 1971 proposal for market forces to affect government funding of research. Although many scientists opposed the proposal, her research background probably made her sceptical of their claim that outsiders should not interfere with funding. The department evaluated proposals for more local education authorities to close grammar schools and to adopt comprehensive secondary education. Although Thatcher was committed to a tiered secondary modern-grammar school system of education and attempted to preserve grammar schools, during her tenure as education secretary she turned down only 326 of 3,612 proposals (roughly 9 per cent) for schools to become comprehensives; the proportion of pupils attending comprehensive schools consequently rose from 32 per cent to 62 per cent. Nevertheless, she managed to save 94 grammar schools.
During her first months in office she attracted public attention as a consequence of the government's attempts to cut spending. She gave priority to academic needs in schools, while administering public expenditure cuts on the state education system, resulting in the abolition of free milk for schoolchildren aged seven to eleven. She held that few children would suffer if schools were charged for milk, but agreed to provide younger children with ⅓ pint daily for nutritional purposes. She also argued that she was simply carrying on with what the Labour government had started since they had stopped giving free milk to secondary schools. Milk would still be provided to those children that required it on medical grounds and schools could still sell milk. The aftermath of the milk row hardened her determination, she told the editor-proprietor Harold Creighton of "The Spectator": "Don't underestimate me, I saw how they broke Keith [Joseph], but they won't break me."
Cabinet papers later revealed that she opposed the policy but had been forced into it by the Treasury. Her decision provoked a storm of protest from Labour and the press, leading to her being notoriously nicknamed "Margaret Thatcher, Milk Snatcher". She reportedly considered leaving politics in the aftermath and later wrote in her autobiography: "I learned a valuable lesson [from the experience]. I had incurred the maximum of political odium for the minimum of political benefit."
The Heath government continued to experience difficulties with oil embargoes and union demands for wage increases in 1973, subsequently losing the February 1974 general election. Labour formed a minority government and went on to win a narrow majority in the October 1974 general election. Heath's leadership of the Conservative Party looked increasingly in doubt. Thatcher was not initially seen as the obvious replacement, but she eventually became the main challenger, promising a fresh start. Her main support came from the parliamentary 1922 Committee and "The Spectator", but Thatcher's time in office gave her the reputation of a pragmatist rather than that of an ideologue. She defeated Heath on the first ballot and he resigned the leadership. In the second ballot she defeated Whitelaw, Heath's preferred successor. Thatcher's election had a polarising effect on the party; her support was stronger among MPs on the right, and also among those from southern England, and those who had not attended public schools or Oxbridge.
Thatcher became Conservative Party leader and leader of the Opposition on 11 February 1975; she appointed Whitelaw as her deputy. Heath was never reconciled to Thatcher's leadership of the party.
Television critic Clive James, writing in "The Observer" prior to her election as Conservative Party leader, compared her voice of 1973 to "a cat sliding down a blackboard". Thatcher had already begun to work on her presentation on the advice of Gordon Reece, a former television producer. By chance, Reece met the actor Laurence Olivier, who arranged lessons with the National Theatre's voice coach.
Thatcher began attending lunches regularly at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a think tank founded by Hayekian poultry magnate Antony Fisher; she had been visiting the IEA and reading its publications since the early 1960s. There she was influenced by the ideas of Ralph Harris and Arthur Seldon, and became the face of the ideological movement opposing the British welfare state. Keynesian economics, they believed, was weakening Britain. The institute's pamphlets proposed less government, lower taxes, and more freedom for business and consumers.
Thatcher intended to promote neoliberal economic ideas at home and abroad. Despite setting the direction of her foreign policy for a Conservative government, Thatcher was distressed by her repeated failure to shine in the House of Commons. Consequently, Thatcher decided that as "her voice was carrying little weight at home", she would "be heard in the wider world". Thatcher undertook visits across the Atlantic, establishing an international profile and promoting her economic and foreign policies. She toured the United States in 1975 and met President Gerald Ford, visiting again in 1977, when she met President Jimmy Carter. Among other foreign trips, she met Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi during a visit to Iran in 1978. Thatcher chose to travel without being accompanied by her shadow foreign secretary, Reginald Maudling, in an attempt to make a bolder personal impact.
In domestic affairs, Thatcher opposed Scottish devolution (home rule) and the creation of a Scottish Assembly. She instructed Conservative MPs to vote against the Scotland and Wales Bill in December 1976, which was successfully defeated, and then when new Bills were proposed she supported amending the legislation to allow the English to vote in the 1979 referendum on Scottish devolution.
Britain's economy during the 1970s was so weak that then foreign secretary James Callaghan warned his fellow Labour Cabinet members in 1974 of the possibility of "a breakdown of democracy", telling them: "If I were a young man, I would emigrate." In mid-1978, the economy began to recover and opinion polls showed Labour in the lead, with a general election being expected later that year and a Labour win a serious possibility. Now prime minister, Callaghan surprised many by announcing on 7 September that there would be no general election that year and he would wait until 1979 before going to the polls. Thatcher reacted to this by branding the Labour government "chickens", and Liberal Party leader David Steel joined in, criticising Labour for "running scared".
The Labour government then faced fresh public unease about the direction of the country and a damaging series of strikes during the winter of 1978–79, dubbed the "Winter of Discontent". The Conservatives attacked the Labour government's unemployment record, using advertising with the slogan "Labour Isn't Working". A general election was called after the Callaghan ministry lost a motion of no confidence in early 1979. The Conservatives won a 44-seat majority in the House of Commons and Thatcher became the first female British prime minister.
In 1976, Thatcher gave her "Britain Awake" foreign policy speech which lambasted the Soviet Union for seeking world dominance. The Soviet Army journal "Krasnaya Zvezda" ("Red Star" rebutted her stance in a piece entitled "Iron Lady Raises Fears" by Captain Yuri Gavrilov (alluding to "Iron Chancellor" Bismarck of imperial Germany). "The Sunday Times" covered the "Red Star" article the next day, and Thatcher embraced the epithet a week later; in a speech to Finchley Conservatives she compared it to the Duke of Wellington's nickname "The Iron Duke". The metaphorical sobriquet followed her throughout her political career, and has since become a generic descriptor for strong-willed female politicians.
Thatcher became prime minister on 4 May 1979. Arriving at Downing Street she said, paraphrasing the Prayer of Saint Francis:
In office throughout the 1980s, Thatcher was frequently described as the most powerful woman in the world.
Thatcher was Opposition leader and prime minister at a time of increased racial tension in Britain. Commenting on the local elections of 1977, "The Economist" noted: "The Tory tide swamped the smaller parties. That specifically includes the National Front (NF), which suffered a clear decline from last year." Her standing in the polls had risen by 11% after a 1978 interview for "World in Action" in which she said "the British character has done so much for democracy, for law and done so much throughout the world that if there is any fear that it might be swamped people are going to react and be rather hostile to those coming in", as well as "in many ways [minorities] add to the richness and variety of this country. The moment the minority threatens to become a big one, people get frightened". In the 1979 general election, the Conservatives had attracted votes from the NF, whose support almost collapsed. In a July 1979 meeting with Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington and Home Secretary William Whitelaw, Thatcher objected to the number of Asian immigrants, in the context of limiting the total of Vietnamese boat people allowed to settle in the UK to fewer than 10,000 over two years.
As prime minister, Thatcher met weekly with Queen Elizabeth II to discuss government business, and their relationship came under close scrutiny. states:
Michael Shea, the Queen's press secretary, had reportedly leaked anonymous rumours of a rift, which were officially denied by her private secretary, William Heseltine. Thatcher later wrote: "I always found the Queen's attitude towards the work of the Government absolutely correct ... stories of clashes between 'two powerful women' were just too good not to make up."
In 2020 the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse reported that Margaret Thatcher was aware of child abuse allegations against Chester MP Peter Morrison.
Thatcher's economic policy was influenced by monetarist thinking and economists such as Milton Friedman and Alan Walters. Together with her first Chancellor, Geoffrey Howe, she lowered direct taxes on income and increased indirect taxes. She increased interest rates to slow the growth of the money supply and thereby lower inflation, introduced cash limits on public spending, and reduced expenditure on social services such as education and housing. Cuts to higher education led to Thatcher being the first Oxford-educated, post-war incumbent without an honorary doctorate from Oxford University, after a 738–319 vote of the governing assembly and a student petition.
Some Heathite Conservatives in the Cabinet, the so-called "wets", expressed doubt over Thatcher's policies. The 1981 England riots resulted in the British media discussing the need for a policy U-turn. At the 1980 Conservative Party conference, Thatcher addressed the issue directly, with a speech written by the playwright Ronald Millar, that notably included the following lines:
Thatcher's job approval rating fell to 23% by December 1980, lower than recorded for any previous prime minister. As the recession of the early 1980s deepened, she increased taxes, despite concerns expressed in a March 1981 statement signed by 364 leading economists, which argued there was "no basis in economic theory ... for the Government's belief that by deflating demand they will bring inflation permanently under control", adding that "present policies will deepen the depression, erode the industrial base of our economy and threaten its social and political stability".
By 1982, the UK began to experience signs of economic recovery; inflation was down to 8.6% from a high of 18%, but unemployment was over 3 million for the first time since the 1930s. By 1983, overall economic growth was stronger, and inflation and mortgage rates had fallen to their lowest levels in 13 years, although manufacturing employment as a share of total employment fell to just over 30%, with total unemployment remaining high, peaking at 3.3 million in 1984.
During the 1982 Conservative Party Conference, Thatcher said: "We have done more to roll back the frontiers of socialism than any previous Conservative Government." She claimed at the Party Conference the following year that the British people had completely rejected state socialism and understood "the state has no source of money other than money which people earn themselves ... There is no such thing as public money; there is only taxpayers' money."
By 1987, unemployment was falling, the economy was stable and strong and inflation was low. Opinion polls showed a comfortable Conservative lead, and local council election results had also been successful, prompting Thatcher to call a general election for 11 June that year, despite the deadline for an election still being 12 months away. The election saw Thatcher re-elected for a third successive term.
Thatcher had been firmly opposed to British membership of the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM, a precursor to European Monetary Union), believing that it would constrain the British economy, despite the urging of both Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson and Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe; in October 1990 she was persuaded by John Major, Lawson's successor as Chancellor, to join the ERM at what proved to be too high a rate.
Thatcher reformed local government taxes by replacing domestic rates (a tax based on the nominal rental value of a home) with the Community Charge (or poll tax) in which the same amount was charged to each adult resident. The new tax was introduced in Scotland in 1989 and in England and Wales the following year, and proved to be among the most unpopular policies of her premiership. Public disquiet culminated in a 70,000 to 200,000-strong demonstration in London in March 1990; the demonstration around Trafalgar Square deteriorated into riots, leaving 113 people injured and 340 under arrest. The Community Charge was abolished in 1991 by her successor, John Major. It has since transpired that Thatcher herself had failed to register for the tax, and was threatened with financial penalties if she did not return her form.
Thatcher believed that the trade unions were harmful to both ordinary trade unionists and the public. She was committed to reducing the power of the unions, whose leadership she accused of undermining parliamentary democracy and economic performance through strike action. Several unions launched strikes in response to legislation introduced to limit their power, but resistance eventually collapsed. Only 39% of union members voted Labour in the 1983 general election. According to the BBC in 2004, Thatcher "managed to destroy the power of the trade unions for almost a generation". The miners' strike of 1984–85 was the biggest and most devastating confrontation between the unions and the government under Thatcher.
In March 1984, the National Coal Board (NCB) proposed to close 20 of the 174 state-owned mines and cut 20,000 jobs out of 187,000. Two-thirds of the country's miners, led by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) under Arthur Scargill, downed tools in protest. However, Scargill refused to hold a ballot on the strike, having previously lost three ballots on a national strike (in January and October 1982, and March 1983). This led to the strike being declared illegal by the High Court of Justice.
Thatcher refused to meet the union's demands and compared the miners' dispute to the Falklands War, declaring in a speech in 1984: "We had to fight the enemy without in the Falklands. We always have to be aware of the enemy within, which is much more difficult to fight and more dangerous to liberty." Thatcher's opponents presented her words as indicating contempt for the working class, and have been employed in criticism of her ever since.
After a year out on strike, in March 1985 the NUM leadership conceded without a deal. The cost to the economy was estimated to be at least £1.5 billion, and the strike was blamed for much of the pound's fall against the US dollar. Thatcher reflected on the end of the strike in her statement that "if anyone has won" it was "the miners who stayed at work" and all those "that have kept Britain going".
The government closed 25 unprofitable coal mines in 1985, and by 1992 a total of 97 mines had been closed; those that remained were privatised in 1994. The resulting closure of 150 coal mines, some of which were not losing money, resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of jobs and had the effect of devastating entire communities. Strikes had helped bring down Heath's government, and Thatcher was determined to succeed where he had failed. Her strategy of preparing fuel stocks, appointing hardliner Ian MacGregor as NCB leader, and ensuring that police were adequately trained and equipped with riot gear, contributed to her triumph over the striking miners.
The number of stoppages across the UK peaked at 4,583 in 1979, when more than 29 million working days had been lost. In 1984, the year of the miners' strike, there were 1,221, resulting in the loss of more than 27 million working days. Stoppages then fell steadily throughout the rest of Thatcher's premiership; in 1990 there were 630 and fewer than 2 million working days lost, and they continued to fall thereafter. Thatcher's tenure also witnessed a sharp decline in trade union density, with the percentage of workers belonging to a trade union falling from 57.3% in 1979 to 49.5% in 1985. In 1979 up until Thatcher's final year in office, trade union membership also fell, from 13.5 million in 1979 to fewer than 10 million.
The policy of privatisation has been called "a crucial ingredient of Thatcherism". After the 1983 election the sale of state utilities accelerated; more than £29 billion was raised from the sale of nationalised industries, and another £18 billion from the sale of council houses. The process of privatisation, especially the preparation of nationalised industries for privatisation, was associated with marked improvements in performance, particularly in terms of labour productivity.
Some of the privatised industries, including gas, water, and electricity, were natural monopolies for which privatisation involved little increase in competition. The privatised industries that demonstrated improvement sometimes did so while still under state ownership. British Steel Corporation had made great gains in profitability while still a nationalised industry under the government-appointed MacGregor chairmanship, which faced down trade-union opposition to close plants and halve the workforce. Regulation was also significantly expanded to compensate for the loss of direct government control, with the foundation of regulatory bodies such as Oftel (1984), Ofgas (1986), and the National Rivers Authority (1989). There was no clear pattern to the degree of competition, regulation, and performance among the privatised industries.
In most cases privatisation benefited consumers in terms of lower prices and improved efficiency, but results overall have been mixed. Not all privatised companies have had successful share price trajectories in the longer term. A 2010 review by the Institute of Economic Affairs states: "it does seem to be the case that once competition and/or effective regulation was introduced, performance improved markedly ... But I hasten to emphasise again that the literature is not unanimous."
Thatcher always resisted privatising British Rail and was said to have told Transport Secretary Nicholas Ridley: "Railway privatisation will be the Waterloo of this government. Please never mention the railways to me again." Shortly before her resignation in 1990, she accepted the arguments for privatisation, which her successor John Major implemented in 1994.
The privatisation of public assets was combined with financial deregulation in an attempt to fuel economic growth. Chancellor Geoffrey Howe abolished the UK's exchange controls in 1979, which allowed more capital to be invested in foreign markets, and the Big Bang of 1986 removed many restrictions on the London Stock Exchange.
In 1980 and 1981, Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) prisoners in Northern Ireland's Maze Prison carried out hunger strikes in an effort to regain the status of political prisoners that had been removed in 1976 by the preceding Labour government. Bobby Sands began the 1981 strike, saying that he would fast until death unless prison inmates won concessions over their living conditions. Thatcher refused to countenance a return to political status for the prisoners, having declared "Crime is crime is crime; it is not political", Nevertheless, the British government privately contacted republican leaders in a bid to bring the hunger strikes to an end. After the deaths of Sands and nine others, the strike ended. Some rights were restored to paramilitary prisoners, but not official recognition of political status. Violence in Northern Ireland escalated significantly during the hunger strikes.
Thatcher narrowly escaped injury in an IRA assassination attempt at a Brighton hotel early in the morning on 12 October 1984. Five people were killed, including the wife of minister John Wakeham. Thatcher was staying at the hotel to prepare for the Conservative Party conference, which she insisted should open as scheduled the following day. She delivered her speech as planned, though rewritten from her original draft, in a move that was widely supported across the political spectrum and enhanced her popularity with the public.
On 6 November 1981, Thatcher and Irish Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald had established the Anglo-Irish Inter-Governmental Council, a forum for meetings between the two governments. On 15 November 1985, Thatcher and FitzGerald signed the Hillsborough Anglo-Irish Agreement, which marked the first time a British government had given the Republic of Ireland an advisory role in the governance of Northern Ireland. In protest, the Ulster Says No movement led by Ian Paisley attracted 100,000 to a rally in Belfast, Ian Gow, later assassinated by the PIRA, resigned as Minister of State in the HM Treasury, and all 15 Unionist MPs resigned their parliamentary seats; only one was not returned in the subsequent by-elections on 23 January 1986.
Thatcher supported an active climate protection policy; she was instrumental in the passing of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, the founding of the Hadley Centre for Climate Research and Prediction, the establishment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the ratification of the Montreal Protocol on preserving the ozone.
Thatcher helped to put climate change, acid rain and general pollution in the British mainstream in the late 1980s, calling for a global treaty on climate change in 1989. Her speeches included one to the Royal Society in 1988, followed by another to the UN General Assembly in 1989.
Thatcher appointed Lord Carrington, a senior member of the party and former Minister of Defence, as Foreign Minister in 1979. Although he was considered a "wet", he avoided domestic affairs and got along well with Thatcher. The first issue was what to do with Rhodesia, where the five-percent white population was determined to rule the prosperous, largely-black ex-colony in the face of overwhelming international disapproval. After the collapse of the Portuguese Empire in Africa in 1975, South Africa, which had been Rhodesia's chief supporter, realised that country was a liability. Black rule was inevitable, and Carrington brokered a peaceful solution at the Lancaster House conference in December 1979, attended by Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith, as well as the key black leaders: Abel Muzorewa, Robert Mugabe, Joshua Nkomo and Josiah Tongogara. The conference ended the Rhodesian Bush War. The end result was the new nation of Zimbabwe under black rule in 1980.
Thatcher's first foreign policy crisis came with the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. She condemned the invasion, said it showed the bankruptcy of a détente policy, and helped convince some British athletes to boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics. She gave weak support to US President Jimmy Carter who tried to punish the USSR with economic sanctions. Britain's economic situation was precarious, and most of NATO was reluctant to cut trade ties. Thatcher nevertheless gave the go ahead for Whitehall to approve MI6 (along with the SAS) to undertake 'disruptive action' in Afghanistan. As well working with the CIA in Operation Cyclone, they also supplied weapons, training and intelligence to the mujaheddin.
The "Financial Times" reported that her government had secretly supplied Saddam Hussein with military equipment since 1981.
The Thatcher government backed the Khmer Rouge keeping their seat in the UN after they were ousted from power in Cambodia by the Cambodian–Vietnamese War. Although Thatcher denied it at the time, it was revealed in 1991 that, while not directly training any Khmer Rouge, from 1983 the Special Air Service (SAS) was sent to secretly train "the armed forces of the Cambodian non-communist resistance" to fight against the Vietnamese-backed puppet regime.
Thatcher was one of the first Western leaders to respond warmly to reformist Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Following Reagan–Gorbachev summit meetings and reforms enacted by Gorbachev in the USSR, she declared in November 1988 that "We're not in a Cold War now", but rather in a "new relationship much wider than the Cold War ever was". She went on a state visit to the Soviet Union in 1984 and met with Gorbachev and Council of Ministers chairman Nikolai Ryzhkov.
Thatcher became closely aligned with the Cold War policies of US President Ronald Reagan, based on their shared distrust of communism. A disagreement came in 1983 when Reagan did not consult with her on the invasion of Grenada.
During her first year as prime minister she supported NATO's decision to deploy US nuclear cruise and Pershing II missiles in Western Europe, permitting the US to station more than 160 cruise missiles at RAF Greenham Common, starting in November 1983 and triggering mass protests by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. She bought the Trident nuclear missile submarine system from the US to replace Polaris, tripling the UK's nuclear forces at an eventual cost of more than £12 billion (at 1996–97 prices). Thatcher's preference for defence ties with the US was demonstrated in the Westland affair of 1985–86, when she acted with colleagues to allow the struggling helicopter manufacturer Westland to refuse a takeover offer from the Italian firm Agusta in favour of the management's preferred option, a link with Sikorsky Aircraft. Defence Secretary Michael Heseltine, who had supported the Agusta deal, resigned from the government in protest.
In April 1986 she permitted US F-111s to use Royal Air Force bases for the bombing of Libya in retaliation for the alleged Libyan bombing of a Berlin discothèque, citing the right of self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter. Polls suggested that fewer than one in three British citizens approved of her decision.
Thatcher was in the US on a state visit when Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August 1990. During her talks with President George H. W. Bush, who succeeded Reagan in 1989, she recommended intervention, and put pressure on Bush to deploy troops in the Middle East to drive the Iraqi Army out of Kuwait. Bush was apprehensive about the plan, prompting Thatcher to remark to him during a telephone conversation: "This was no time to go wobbly!" Thatcher's government supplied military forces to the international coalition in the build-up to the Gulf War, but she had resigned by the time hostilities began on 17 January 1991. She applauded the coalition victory as a backbencher, while warning that "the victories of peace will take longer than the battles of war". It was later disclosed that Thatcher suggested threatening Saddam with chemical weapons after the invasion of Kuwait.
On 2 April 1982 the ruling military junta in Argentina ordered the invasion of the British possessions of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia, triggering the Falklands War. The subsequent crisis was "a defining moment of [Thatcher's] premiership". At the suggestion of Harold Macmillan and Robert Armstrong, she set up and chaired a small War Cabinet (formally called ODSA, Overseas and Defence committee, South Atlantic) to oversee the conduct of the war, which by 5–6 April had authorised and dispatched a naval task force to retake the islands. Argentina surrendered on 14 June and "Operation Corporate" was hailed a success, notwithstanding the deaths of 255 British servicemen and 3 Falkland Islanders. Argentine fatalities totalled 649, half of them after the nuclear-powered submarine torpedoed and sank the cruiser on 2 May.
Thatcher was criticised for the neglect of the Falklands' defence that led to the war, and especially by Tam Dalyell in Parliament for the decision to torpedo the "General Belgrano", but overall she was considered a highly capable and committed war leader. The "Falklands factor", an economic recovery beginning early in 1982, and a bitterly divided opposition all contributed to Thatcher's second election victory in 1983. Thatcher frequently referred after the war to the "Falklands spirit"; suggests that this reflected her preference for the streamlined decision-making of her War Cabinet over the painstaking deal-making of peacetime cabinet government.
In September 1982 she visited China to discuss with Deng Xiaoping the sovereignty of Hong Kong after 1997. China was the first communist state Thatcher had visited and she was the first British prime minister to visit China. Throughout their meeting, she sought the PRC's agreement to a continued British presence in the territory. Deng insisted that the PRC's sovereignty on Hong Kong was non-negotiable, but stated his willingness to settle the sovereignty issue with the British government through formal negotiations, and both governments promised to maintain Hong Kong's stability and prosperity. After the two-year negotiations, Thatcher conceded to the PRC government and signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration in Beijing in 1984, agreeing to hand over Hong Kong's sovereignty in 1997.
Despite saying that she was in favour of "peaceful negotiations" to end apartheid, Thatcher opposed sanctions imposed on South Africa by the Commonwealth and the European Economic Community (EEC). She attempted to preserve trade with South Africa while persuading the government there to abandon apartheid. This included "[c]asting herself as President Botha's candid friend", and inviting him to visit the UK in 1984, in spite of the "inevitable demonstrations" against his government. Alan Merrydew of the Canadian broadcaster BCTV News asked Thatcher what her response was "to a reported ANC statement that they will target British firms in South Africa?", to which she later replied: " ... when the ANC says that they will target British companies ... This shows what a typical terrorist organisation it is. I fought terrorism all my life and if more people fought it, and we were all more successful, we should not have it and I hope that everyone in this hall will think it is right to go on fighting terrorism." During his visit to Britain five months after his release from prison, Nelson Mandela praised Thatcher: "She is an enemy of apartheid ... We have much to thank her for."
Thatcher and her party supported British membership of the EEC in the 1975 national referendum and the Single European Act of 1986, and obtained the UK rebate on contributions, but she believed that the role of the organisation should be limited to ensuring free trade and effective competition, and feared that the EEC approach was at odds with her views on smaller government and deregulation. Believing that the single market would result in political integration, Thatcher's opposition to further European integration became more pronounced during her premiership and particularly after her third government in 1987. In her Bruges speech in 1988, Thatcher outlined her opposition to proposals from the EEC, forerunner of the European Union, for a federal structure and increased centralisation of decision making:
Thatcher, sharing the concerns of French President François Mitterrand, was initially opposed to German reunification, telling Gorbachev that it "would lead to a change to postwar borders, and we cannot allow that because such a development would undermine the stability of the whole international situation and could endanger our security". She expressed concern that a united Germany would align itself more closely with the Soviet Union and move away from NATO. In March 1990, West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl reassured Thatcher that he would keep her "informed of all his intentions about unification", and that he was prepared to disclose "matters which even his cabinet would not know".
Thatcher was challenged for the leadership of the Conservative Party by the little-known backbench MP Sir Anthony Meyer in the 1989 leadership election. Of the 374 Conservative MPs eligible to vote, 314 voted for Thatcher and 33 for Meyer. Her supporters in the party viewed the result as a success, and rejected suggestions that there was discontent within the party.
During her premiership Thatcher had the second-lowest average approval rating (40%) of any post-war prime minister. Since the resignation of Nigel Lawson as Chancellor in October 1989, polls consistently showed that she was less popular than her party. A self-described conviction politician, Thatcher always insisted that she did not care about her poll ratings and pointed instead to her unbeaten election record.
Opinion polls in September 1990 reported that Labour had established a 14% lead over the Conservatives, and by November the Conservatives had been trailing Labour for 18 months. These ratings, together with Thatcher's combative personality and tendency to override collegiate opinion, contributed to discontent within her party.
Thatcher removed Geoffrey Howe as foreign secretary in July 1989 after he and Lawson had forced her to agree to a plan for Britain to join the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM). Britain joined the ERM in October 1990. On 1 November 1990, Howe, by then the last remaining member of Thatcher's original 1979 cabinet, resigned from his position as deputy prime minister, ostensibly over her open hostility to moves towards European Monetary Union. In his resignation speech on 13 November, Howe commented on Thatcher's openly dismissive attitude to the government's proposal for a new European currency competing against existing currencies (a "hard ECU"):
Howe's resignation hastened the end to Thatcher's premiership.
On 14 November, Michael Heseltine mounted a challenge for the leadership of the Conservative Party. Opinion polls had indicated that he would give the Conservatives a national lead over Labour. Although Thatcher led on the first ballot with the votes of 204 Conservative MPs (54.8%) to 152 votes (40.9%) for Heseltine and 16 abstentions, she was four votes short of the required 15% majority. A second ballot was therefore necessary. Thatcher initially declared her intention to "fight on and fight to win" the second ballot, but consultation with her Cabinet persuaded her to withdraw. After holding an audience with the Queen, calling other world leaders, and making one final Commons speech, on 28 November she left Downing Street in tears. She reportedly regarded her ousting as a betrayal. Her resignation was a shock to many outside Britain, with such foreign observers as Henry Kissinger and Gorbachev expressing private consternation.
Thatcher was replaced as head of government and party leader by Chancellor John Major, who prevailed over Heseltine in the subsequent ballot. Major oversaw an upturn in Conservative support in the 17 months leading to the 1992 general election and led the party to a fourth successive victory on 9 April 1992. Thatcher favoured Major in the leadership contest, but her support for him waned in later years.
Thatcher returned to the backbenches as a constituency parliamentarian after leaving the premiership. Her domestic approval rating recovered after her resignation, though public opinion remained divided on whether her government had been good for the country. Aged 66, she retired from the House at the 1992 general election, saying that leaving the Commons would allow her more freedom to speak her mind.
On leaving the Commons, Thatcher became the first former British prime minister to set up a foundation; the British wing of the Margaret Thatcher Foundation was dissolved in 2005 due to financial difficulties. She wrote two volumes of memoirs, "The Downing Street Years" (1993) and "The Path to Power" (1995). In 1991 she and her husband Denis moved to a house in Chester Square, a residential garden square in central London's Belgravia district.
Thatcher was hired by the tobacco company Philip Morris as a "geopolitical consultant" in July 1992, for $250,000 per year and an annual contribution of $250,000 to her foundation. Thatcher earned $50,000 for each speech she delivered.
Thatcher became an advocate of Croatian and Slovenian independence. Commenting on the Yugoslav Wars, in a 1991 interview for Croatian Radiotelevision, she was critical of Western governments for not recognising the breakaway republics of Croatia and Slovenia as independent and for not supplying them with arms after the Serbian-led Yugoslav Army attacked.
In August 1992 she called for NATO to stop the Serbian assault on Goražde and Sarajevo, to end ethnic cleansing during the Bosnian War, comparing the situation in Bosnia–Herzegovina to "the barbarities of Hitler's and Stalin's".
She made a series of speeches in the Lords criticising the Maastricht Treaty, describing it as "a treaty too far" and stated: "I could never have signed this treaty." She cited A. V. Dicey when arguing that, as all three main parties were in favour of the treaty, the people should have their say in a referendum.
Thatcher served as honorary chancellor of the College of William & Mary in Virginia from 1993 to 2000, while also serving as chancellor of the private University of Buckingham from 1992 to 1998, a university she had formally opened in 1976 as the then education secretary.
After Tony Blair's election as Labour Party leader in 1994, Thatcher praised Blair as "probably the most formidable Labour leader since Hugh Gaitskell", adding: "I see a lot of socialism behind their front bench, but not in Mr Blair. I think he genuinely has moved." Blair responded in kind: "She was a thoroughly determined person, and that is an admirable quality."
In 1998, Thatcher called for the release of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet when Spain had him arrested and sought to try him for human rights violations. She cited the help he gave Britain during the Falklands War. In 1999, she visited him while he was under house arrest near London. Pinochet was released in March 2000 on medical grounds by Home Secretary Jack Straw.
At the 2001 general election, Thatcher supported the Conservative campaign, as she had done in 1992 and 1997, and in the Conservative leadership election following its defeat, she endorsed Iain Duncan Smith over Kenneth Clarke. In 2002 she encouraged George W. Bush to aggressively tackle the "unfinished business" of Iraq under Saddam Hussein, and praised Blair for his "strong, bold leadership" in standing with Bush in the Iraq War.
She broached the same subject in her "", which was published in April 2002 and dedicated to Ronald Reagan, writing that there would be no peace in the Middle East until Saddam Hussein was toppled. Her book also said that Israel must trade land for peace, and that the European Union (EU) was a "fundamentally unreformable", "classic utopian project, a monument to the vanity of intellectuals, a programme whose inevitable destiny is failure". She argued that Britain should renegotiate its terms of membership or else leave the EU and join the North American Free Trade Area.
Following several small strokes she was advised by her doctors not to engage in further public speaking. In March 2002 she announced that on doctors' advice she would cancel all planned speaking engagements and accept no more.
On 26 June 2003, Thatcher's husband Sir Denis died of pancreatic cancer, and was cremated on 3 July at Mortlake Crematorium in London.
On 11 June 2004, Thatcher (against doctor's orders) attended the state funeral service for Ronald Reagan. She delivered her eulogy via videotape; in view of her health, the message had been pre-recorded several months earlier. Thatcher flew to California with the Reagan entourage, and attended the memorial service and interment ceremony for the president at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
In 2005, Thatcher criticised the way the decision to invade Iraq had been made two years previously. Although she still supported the intervention to topple Saddam Hussein, she said that (as a scientist) she would always look for "facts, evidence and proof", before committing the armed forces. She celebrated her 80th birthday on 13 October at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hyde Park, London; guests included the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, Princess Alexandra and Tony Blair. Lord (Geoffrey) Howe of Aberavon was also in attendance and said of Thatcher: "Her real triumph was to have transformed not just one party but two, so that when Labour did eventually return, the great bulk of Thatcherism was accepted as irreversible."
In 2006, Thatcher attended the official Washington, D.C. memorial service to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the 11 September attacks on the US. She was a guest of Vice-President Dick Cheney, and met Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her visit. In February 2007 Thatcher became the first living British prime minister to be honoured with a statue in the Houses of Parliament. The bronze statue stands opposite that of her political hero, Sir Winston Churchill, and was unveiled on 21 February 2007 with Thatcher in attendance; she remarked in the Members' Lobby of the Commons: "I might have preferred iron – but bronze will do ... It won't rust."
Thatcher was a public supporter of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism and the resulting Prague Process, and sent a public letter of support to its preceding conference.
After collapsing at a House of Lords dinner, Thatcher, suffering low blood pressure, was admitted to St Thomas' Hospital in central London on 7 March 2008 for tests. In 2009 she was hospitalised again when she fell and broke her arm. Thatcher returned to 10 Downing Street in late November 2009 for the unveiling of an official portrait by artist Richard Stone, an unusual honour for a living former prime minister. Stone was previously commissioned to paint portraits of the Queen and Queen Mother.
On 4 July 2011, Thatcher was to attend a ceremony for the unveiling of a statue to Ronald Reagan, outside the US Embassy in London, but was unable to attend due to her frail health. She last attended a sitting of the House of Lords on 19 July 2010, and on 30 July 2011 it was announced that her office in the Lords had been closed. Earlier that month, Thatcher was named the most competent prime minister of the past 30 years in an Ipsos MORI poll.
Thatcher's daughter Carol that her mother had dementia in 2005, saying "Mum doesn't read much any more because of her memory loss". In her 2008 memoir, Carol wrote that her mother "could hardly remember the beginning of a sentence by the time she got to the end". She later recounted how she was first struck by her mother's dementia when, in conversation, Thatcher confused the Falklands and Yugoslav conflicts; she recalled the pain of needing to tell her mother repeatedly that her husband Denis was dead.
Baroness Thatcher died on 8 April 2013, at the age of 87, after suffering a stroke. She had been staying at a suite in the Ritz Hotel in London since December 2012 after having difficulty with stairs at her Chester Square home in Belgravia. Her death certificate listed the primary causes of death as a "cerebrovascular accident" and "repeated transient ischaemic attack"; secondary causes were listed as a "carcinoma of the bladder" and dementia.
Details of Thatcher's funeral had been agreed with her in advance. She received a ceremonial funeral, including full military honours, with a church service at St Paul's Cathedral on 17 April.
Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh attended her funeral, marking only the second time in the Queen's reign that she attended the funeral of any of her former prime ministers; the first and only precedent being that of Winston Churchill, who received a state funeral in 1965.
After the service at St Paul's Cathedral, Thatcher's body was cremated at Mortlake Crematorium, where her husband had been cremated. On 28 September, a service for Thatcher was held in the All Saints Chapel of the Royal Hospital Chelsea's Margaret Thatcher Infirmary. In a private ceremony, Thatcher's ashes were interred in the grounds of the hospital, next to those of her husband.
Thatcherism represented a systematic and decisive overhaul of the post-war consensus, whereby the major political parties largely agreed on the central themes of Keynesianism, the welfare state, nationalised industry, and close regulation of the economy, and high taxes. Thatcher generally supported the welfare state, while proposing to rid it of abuses.
She promised in 1982 that the highly popular National Health Service was "safe in our hands". At first she ignored the question of privatising nationalised industries. Heavily influenced by right-wing think tanks, and especially by Keith Joseph, Thatcher broadened her attack. Thatcherism came to refer to her policies as well as aspects of her ethical outlook and personal style, including moral absolutism, nationalism, interest in the individual, and an uncompromising approach to achieving political goals.
Thatcher defined her own political philosophy, in a major and controversial break with the "one-nation" conservatism of her predecessor Edward Heath, in a 1987 interview published in "Woman's Own" magazine:
The number of adults owning shares rose from 7 per cent to 25 per cent during her tenure, and more than a million families bought their council houses, giving an increase from 55 per cent to 67 per cent in owner occupiers from 1979 to 1990. The houses were sold at a discount of 33–55 per cent, leading to large profits for some new owners. Personal wealth rose by 80 per cent in real terms during the 1980s, mainly due to rising house prices and increased earnings. Shares in the privatised utilities were sold below their market value to ensure quick and wide sales, rather than maximise national income.
The "Thatcher years" were also marked by periods of high unemployment and social unrest, and many critics on the left of the political spectrum fault her economic policies for the unemployment level; many of the areas affected by mass unemployment as well as her monetarist economic policies remained blighted for decades, by such social problems as drug abuse and family breakdown. Unemployment did not fall below its May 1979 level during her tenure, only marginally falling below its April 1979 level in 1990. The long-term effects of her policies on manufacturing remain contentious.
Speaking in Scotland in 2009, Thatcher insisted she had no regrets and was right to introduce the "poll tax" and withdraw subsidies from "outdated industries, whose markets were in terminal decline", subsidies that created "the culture of dependency, which had done such damage to Britain". Political economist Susan Strange termed the neoliberal financial growth model "casino capitalism", reflecting her view that speculation and financial trading were becoming more important to the economy than industry.
Critics on the left describe her as divisive and claim she condoned greed and selfishness. Leading Welsh politician Rhodri Morgan, among others, characterised Thatcher as a "Marmite" figure. Journalist Michael White, writing in the aftermath of the 2007–08 financial crisis, challenged the view that her reforms were still a net benefit. Others consider her approach to have been "a mixed bag" and "[a] Curate's egg".
Thatcher did "little to advance the political cause of women" either within her party or the government. states that some British feminists regarded her as "an enemy". claims that, although Thatcher had struggled laboriously against the sexist prejudices of her day to rise to the top, she made no effort to ease the path for other women. Thatcher did not regard women's rights as requiring particular attention as she did not, especially during her premiership, consider that women were being deprived of their rights. She had once suggested the shortlisting of women by default for all public appointments, yet had also proposed that those with young children ought to leave the work force.
Thatcher's stance on immigration in the late 1970s was perceived as part of a rising racist public discourse, which terms "new racism". In opposition, Thatcher believed that the National Front (NF) was winning over large numbers of Conservative voters with warnings against floods of immigrants. Her strategy was to undermine the NF narrative by acknowledging that many of their voters had serious concerns in need of addressing. In 1978 she criticised Labour immigration policy with the goal of attracting voters away from the NF and to the Conservatives. Her rhetoric was followed by an increase in Conservative support at the expense of the NF. Critics on the left accused her of pandering to racism.
Many Thatcherite policies had an influence on the Labour Party, which returned to power in 1997 under Tony Blair. Blair rebranded the party "New Labour" in 1994 with the aim of increasing its appeal beyond its traditional supporters, and to attract those who had supported Thatcher, such as the "Essex man". Thatcher is said to have regarded the "New Labour" rebranding as her greatest achievement.
Shortly after Thatcher's death in 2013, Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond argued that her policies had the "unintended consequence" of encouraging Scottish devolution. Lord Foulkes of Cumnock agreed on "Scotland Tonight" that she had provided "the impetus" for devolution. Writing for "The Scotsman", Thatcher had argued against devolution on the basis that it would eventually lead to Scottish independence.
Thatcher's tenure of 11 years and 209 days as prime minister was the longest since Lord Salisbury (13 years and 252 days, in three spells) and the longest continuous period in office since Lord Liverpool (14 years and 305 days). She remains the longest-serving Prime Minister officially referred to as such, as the post was only officially given recognition in the order of precedence in 1905.
Having led the Conservative Party to victory in three consecutive general elections, twice in a landslide, she ranks among the most popular party leaders in British history in terms of votes cast for the winning party; over 40 million ballots were cast in total for the Conservatives under her leadership. Her electoral successes were dubbed a "historic hat trick" by the British press in 1987.
Thatcher ranked highest among living persons in the 2002 BBC poll "100 Greatest Britons". In 1999, "Time" deemed Thatcher one of the . In 2015 she topped a poll by "Scottish Widows", a major financial services company, as the most influential woman of the past 200 years; and in 2016 topped BBC Radio 4's "Woman's Hour Power List" of women judged to have had the biggest impact on female lives over the past 70 years. In 2020, "Time" magazine included Thatcher's name on its list of 100 Women of the Year. She was chosen as the Woman of the Year 1982, the year in which the Falklands War began under her command and resulted in the British victory.
In contrast to her relatively poor average approval rating as prime minister, Thatcher has since ranked highly in retrospective opinion polling and, according to YouGov, she is "see[n] in overall positive terms" by the British public. She was voted the fourth-greatest British prime minister of the 20th century in a poll of 139 academics organised by MORI.
According to theatre critic Michael Billington, Thatcher left an "emphatic mark" on the arts while Prime Minister. One of the earliest satires of Thatcher as prime minister involved satirist John Wells (as writer and performer), actress Janet Brown (voicing Thatcher) and future "Spitting Image" producer John Lloyd (as co-producer), who in 1979 were teamed up by producer Martin Lewis for the satirical audio album "The Iron Lady", which consisted of skits and songs satirising Thatcher's rise to power. The album was released in September 1979. Thatcher was heavily satirised on "Spitting Image", and "The Independent" labelled her "every stand-up's dream".
Thatcher was the subject or the inspiration for 1980s protest songs. Musicians Billy Bragg and Paul Weller helped to form the Red Wedge collective to support Labour in opposition to Thatcher. Known as "Maggie" by supporters and opponents alike, the chant song "Maggie Out" became a signature rallying cry among the left during the latter half of her premiership.
Thatcher was parodied by Wells in several media. He collaborated with Richard Ingrams on the spoof "Dear Bill" letters, which ran as a column in "Private Eye" magazine; they were also published in book form and became a West End stage revue titled "Anyone for Denis?", with Wells in the role of Denis Thatcher. It was followed by a 1982 TV special directed by Dick Clement, in which Thatcher was played by Angela Thorne.
Since her resignation in 1990, Thatcher has been portrayed in a number of television programmes, documentaries, films and plays. She was portrayed by Patricia Hodge in Ian Curteis's long unproduced "The Falklands Play" (2002) and by Andrea Riseborough in the TV film "The Long Walk to Finchley" (2008). She is the protagonist in two films, played by Lindsay Duncan in "Margaret" (2009) and by Meryl Streep in "The Iron Lady" (2011), in which she is depicted as suffering from dementia or Alzheimer's disease. She will be a main character in the fourth season of Netflix series "The Crown", played by Gillian Anderson.
Thatcher became a privy councillor (PC) on becoming a secretary of state in 1970. She was the first woman entitled to full membership rights as an honorary member of the Carlton Club on becoming Leader of the Conservative Party in 1975.
As prime minister, Thatcher received two honorary distinctions:
Two weeks after her resignation, Thatcher was appointed Member of the Order of Merit (OM) by the Queen. Her husband Denis was made a hereditary baronet at the same time. As his wife, Thatcher was entitled to use the honorific style "Lady", an automatically conferred title that she declined to use. She became Lady Thatcher in her own right on her ennoblement in the House of Lords.
In the Falklands, Margaret Thatcher Day has been marked each 10 January since 1992, commemorating her first visit to the Islands in January 1983, six months after the end of the Falklands War in June 1982.
Thatcher became a member of the Lords in 1992 with a life peerage as Baroness Thatcher, of Kesteven in the County of Lincolnshire. Subsequently, the College of Arms granted her usage of a personal coat of arms; she was allowed to revise these arms on her appointment as Lady of the Order of the Garter (LG) in 1995, the highest order of chivalry for women.
In the US, Thatcher received the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award, and was later designated Patron of The Heritage Foundation in 2006, where she established the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom.
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Metastability
In physics, metastability is a stable state of a dynamical system other than the system's state of least energy.
A ball resting in a hollow on a slope is a simple example of metastability. If the ball is only slightly pushed, it will settle back into its hollow, but a stronger push may start the ball rolling down the slope. Bowling pins show similar metastability by either merely wobbling for a moment or tipping over completely. A common example of metastability in science is isomerisation. Higher energy isomers are long lived because they are prevented from rearranging to their preferred ground state by (possibly large) barriers in the potential energy.
During a metastable state of finite lifetime, all state-describing parameters reach and hold stationary values. In isolation:
The metastability concept originated in the physics of first-order phase transitions. It then acquired new meaning in the study of aggregated subatomic particles (in atomic nuclei or in atoms) or in molecules, macromolecules or clusters of atoms and molecules. Later, it was borrowed for the study of decision-making and information transmission systems.
Many complex natural and man-made systems can demonstrate metastability.
Non-equilibrium thermodynamics is a branch of physics that studies the dynamics of statistical ensembles of molecules via unstable states. Being "stuck" in a thermodynamic trough without being at the lowest energy state is known as having kinetic stability or being kinetically persistent. The particular motion or kinetics of the atoms involved has resulted in getting stuck, despite there being preferable (lower-energy) alternatives.
Metastable states of matter (also referred as metastates) range from melting solids (or freezing liquids), boiling liquids (or condensing gases) and sublimating solids to supercooled liquids or superheated liquid-gas mixtures. Extremely pure, supercooled water stays liquid below 0 °C and remains so until applied vibrations or condensing seed doping initiates crystallization centers. This is a common situation for the droplets of atmospheric clouds.
Metastable phases are common in condensed matter and crystallography. Notably, this is the case for anatase, a metastable polymorph of titanium dioxide, which despite commonly being the first phase to form in many synthesis processes due to its lower surface energy, is always metastable, with rutile being the most stable phase at all temperatures and pressures .
As another example, diamond is a stable phase only at very high pressures, but is a metastable form of carbon at standard temperature and pressure. It can be converted to graphite (plus leftover kinetic energy), but only after overcoming an activation energy – an intervening hill. Martensite is a metastable phase used to control the hardness of most steel. Metastable polymorphs of silica are commonly observed. In some cases, such as in the allotropes of solid boron, acquiring a sample of the stable phase is difficult.
The bonds between the building blocks of polymers such as DNA, RNA, and proteins are also metastable. Adenosine triphosphate is a highly metastable molecule, colloquially described as being "full of energy" that can be used in many ways in biology.
Generally speaking, emulsions/colloidal systems and glasses are metastable e.g. the metastability of silica glass is characterised by lifetimes of the order of 1098 years compared with the lifetime of the Universe which is about 14·109 years.
Sandpiles are one system which can exhibit metastability if a steep slope or tunnel is present. Sand grains form a pile due to friction. It is possible for an entire large sand pile to reach a point where it is stable, but the addition of a single grain causes large parts of it to collapse.
The avalanche is a well-known problem with large piles of snow and ice crystals on steep slopes. In dry conditions, snow slopes act similarly to sandpiles. An entire mountainside of snow can suddenly slide due to the presence of a skier, or even a loud noise or vibration.
Aggregated systems of subatomic particles described by quantum mechanics (quarks inside nucleons, nucleons inside atomic nuclei, electrons inside atoms, molecules, or atomic clusters) are found to have many distinguishable states. Of these, one (or a small degenerate set) is indefinitely stable: the ground state or global minimum.
All other states besides the ground state (or those degenerate with it) have higher energies. Of all these other states, the metastable states are the ones having lifetimes lasting at least 102 to 103 times longer than the shortest lived states of the set.
A "metastable state" is then long-lived (locally stable with respect to configurations of 'neighbouring' energies) but not eternal (as the global minimum is). Being excited – of an energy above the ground state – it will eventually decay to a more stable state, releasing energy. Indeed, above absolute zero, all states of a system have a non-zero probability to decay; that is, to spontaneously fall into another state (usually lower in energy). One mechanism for this to happen is through tunnelling.
Some energetic states of an atomic nucleus (having distinct spatial mass, charge, spin, isospin distributions) are much longer-lived than other (nuclear isomers of the same isotope), e.g. technetium-99m. The isotope tantalum-180m, although being a metastable excited state, is long-lived enough that it has never been observed to decay, with a half-life calculated to be least years, over 3 million times the current age of the universe.
Some atomic energy levels are metastable. Rydberg atoms are an example of metastable excited atomic states. Transitions from metastable excited levels are typically those forbidden by electric dipole selection rules. This means that any transitions from this level are relatively unlikely to occur. In a sense, an electron that happens to find itself in a metastable configuration is trapped there. Of course, since transitions from a metastable state are not impossible (merely less likely), the electron will eventually decay to a less energetic state, typically by an electric quadrupole transition, or often by non-radiative de-excitation (e.g., collisional de-excitation).
This slow-decay property of a metastable state is apparent in phosphorescence, the kind of photoluminescence seen in glow-in-the-dark toys that can be charged by first being exposed to bright light. Whereas spontaneous emission in atoms has a typical timescale on the order of 10−8 seconds, the decay of metastable states can typically take milliseconds to minutes, and so light emitted in phosphorescence is usually both weak and long-lasting.
In chemical systems, a system of atoms or molecules involving a change in chemical bond can be in a metastable state, which lasts for a relatively long period of time. Molecular vibrations and thermal motion make chemical species at the energetic equivalent of the top of a round hill very short-lived. Metastable states that persist for many seconds (or years) are found in energetic "valleys" which are not the lowest possible valley (point 1 in illustration). A common type of metastability is isomerism.
The stability or metastability of a given chemical system depends on its environment, particularly temperature and pressure. The difference between producing a stable vs. metastable entity can have important consequences. For instances, having the wrong crystal polymorph can result in failure of a drug while in storage between manufacture and administration. The map of which state is the most stable as a function of pressure, temperature and/or composition is known as a phase diagram. In regions where a particular state is not the most stable, it may still be metastable.
Reaction intermediates are relatively short-lived, and are usually thermodynamically unstable rather than metastable. The IUPAC recommends referring to these as "transient" rather than metastable.
Metastability is also used to refer to specific situations in mass spectrometry and spectrochemistry.
A digital circuit is supposed to be found in a small number of stable digital states within a certain amount of time after an input change. However if an input changes at the wrong moment a digital circuit which employs feedback (even a simple circuit such as a flip-flop) can enter a metastable state and take an unbounded length of time to finally settle into a fully stable digital state.
Metastability in the brain is a phenomenon studied in computational neuroscience to elucidate how the human brain recognizes patterns. Here, the term metastability is used rather loosely. There is no lower-energy state, but there are semi-transient signals in the brain that persist for a while and are different than the usual equilibrium state.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19833
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Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft (, ; 27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was an English writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. Until the late 20th century, Wollstonecraft's life, which encompassed several unconventional personal relationships at the time, received more attention than her writing. Today Wollstonecraft is regarded as one of the founding feminist philosophers, and feminists often cite both her life and her works as important influences.
During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children's book. Wollstonecraft is best known for "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" (1792), in which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men, but appear to be only because they lack education. She suggests that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagines a social order founded on reason.
After Wollstonecraft's death, her widower published a "Memoir" (1798) of her life, revealing her unorthodox lifestyle, which inadvertently destroyed her reputation for almost a century. However, with the emergence of the feminist movement at the turn of the twentieth century, Wollstonecraft's advocacy of women's equality and critiques of conventional femininity became increasingly important.
After two ill-fated affairs, with Henry Fuseli and Gilbert Imlay (by whom she had a daughter, Fanny Imlay), Wollstonecraft married the philosopher William Godwin, one of the forefathers of the anarchist movement. Wollstonecraft died at the age of 38 leaving behind several unfinished manuscripts. She died eleven days after giving birth to her second daughter, Mary Shelley, who would become an accomplished writer and author of "Frankenstein".
Wollstonecraft was born on 27 April 1759 in Spitalfields, London. She was the second of the seven children of Elizabeth Dixon and Edward John Wollstonecraft. Although her family had a comfortable income when she was a child, her father gradually squandered it on speculative projects. Consequently, the family became financially unstable and they were frequently forced to move during Wollstonecraft's youth. The family's financial situation eventually became so dire that Wollstonecraft's father compelled her to turn over money that she would have inherited at her maturity. Moreover, he was apparently a violent man who would beat his wife in drunken rages. As a teenager, Wollstonecraft used to lie outside the door of her mother's bedroom to protect her. Wollstonecraft played a similar maternal role for her sisters, Everina and Eliza, throughout her life. For example, in a defining moment in 1784, she convinced Eliza, who was suffering from what was probably postpartum depression, to leave her husband and infant; Wollstonecraft made all of the arrangements for Eliza to flee, demonstrating her willingness to challenge social norms. The human costs, however, were severe: her sister suffered social condemnation and, because she could not remarry, was doomed to a life of poverty and hard work.
Two friendships shaped Wollstonecraft's early life. The first was with Jane Arden in Beverley. The two frequently read books together and attended lectures presented by Arden's father, a self-styled philosopher and scientist. Wollstonecraft revelled in the intellectual atmosphere of the Arden household and valued her friendship with Arden greatly, sometimes to the point of being emotionally possessive. Wollstonecraft wrote to her: "I have formed romantic notions of friendship ... I am a little singular in my thoughts of love and friendship; I must have the first place or none." In some of Wollstonecraft's letters to Arden, she reveals the volatile and depressive emotions that would haunt her throughout her life. The second and more important friendship was with Fanny (Frances) Blood, introduced to Wollstonecraft by the Clares, a couple in Hoxton who became parental figures to her; Wollstonecraft credited Blood with opening her mind.
Unhappy with her home life, Wollstonecraft struck out on her own in 1778 and accepted a job as a lady's companion to Sarah Dawson, a widow living in Bath. However, Wollstonecraft had trouble getting along with the irascible woman (an experience she drew on when describing the drawbacks of such a position in "Thoughts on the Education of Daughters", 1787). In 1780 she returned home upon being called back to care for her dying mother. Rather than return to Dawson's employ after the death of her mother, Wollstonecraft moved in with the Bloods. She realized during the two years she spent with the family that she had idealized Blood, who was more invested in traditional feminine values than was Wollstonecraft. But Wollstonecraft remained dedicated to Fanny and her family throughout her life (she frequently gave pecuniary assistance to Blood's brother, for example).
Wollstonecraft had envisioned living in a female utopia with Blood; they made plans to rent rooms together and support each other emotionally and financially, but this dream collapsed under economic realities. In order to make a living, Wollstonecraft, her sisters, and Blood set up a school together in Newington Green, a Dissenting community. Blood soon became engaged and after their marriage her husband, Hugh Skeys, took her to Lisbon, Portugal, to improve her health, which had always been precarious. Despite the change of surroundings Blood's health further deteriorated when she became pregnant, and in 1785 Wollstonecraft left the school and followed Blood to nurse her, but to no avail. Moreover, her abandonment of the school led to its failure. Blood's death devastated Wollstonecraft and was part of the inspiration for her first novel, "" (1788).
After Blood's death in 1785, Wollstonecraft's friends helped her obtain a position as governess to the daughters of the Anglo-Irish Kingsborough family in Ireland. Although she could not get along with Lady Kingsborough, the children found her an inspiring instructor; Margaret King would later say she 'had freed her mind from all superstitions'. Some of Wollstonecraft's experiences during this year would make their way into her only children's book, "Original Stories from Real Life" (1788).
Frustrated by the limited career options open to respectable yet poor women—an impediment which Wollstonecraft eloquently describes in the chapter of "Thoughts on the Education of Daughters" entitled 'Unfortunate Situation of Females, Fashionably Educated, and Left Without a Fortune'—she decided, after only a year as a governess, to embark upon a career as an author. This was a radical choice, since, at the time, few women could support themselves by writing. As she wrote to her sister Everina in 1787, she was trying to become 'the first of a new genus'. She moved to London and, assisted by the liberal publisher Joseph Johnson, found a place to live and work to support herself. She learned French and German and translated texts, most notably "Of the Importance of Religious Opinions" by Jacques Necker and "Elements of Morality, for the Use of Children" by Christian Gotthilf Salzmann. She also wrote reviews, primarily of novels, for Johnson's periodical, the "Analytical Review". Wollstonecraft's intellectual universe expanded during this time, not only from the reading that she did for her reviews but also from the company she kept: she attended Johnson's famous dinners and met such luminaries as the radical pamphleteer Thomas Paine and the philosopher William Godwin. The first time Godwin and Wollstonecraft met, they were disappointed in each other. Godwin had come to hear Paine, but Wollstonecraft assailed him all night long, disagreeing with him on nearly every subject. Johnson himself, however, became much more than a friend; she described him in her letters as a father and a brother.
While in London, Wollstonecraft pursued a relationship with the artist Henry Fuseli, even though he was already married. She was, she wrote, enraptured by his genius, 'the grandeur of his soul, that quickness of comprehension, and lovely sympathy'. She proposed a platonic living arrangement with Fuseli and his wife, but Fuseli's wife was appalled, and he broke off the relationship with Wollstonecraft. After Fuseli's rejection, Wollstonecraft decided to travel to France to escape the humiliation of the incident, and to participate in the revolutionary events that she had just celebrated in her recent "Vindication of the Rights of Men" (1790). She had written the "Rights of Men" in response to the Whig MP Edmund Burke's politically conservative critique of the French Revolution in "Reflections on the Revolution in France" (1790) and it made her famous overnight. "Reflections on the Revolution in France" was published on 1 November 1790, and so angered Wollstonecraft that she spent the rest of the month writing her rebuttal. "A Vindication of the Rights of Men, in a Letter to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke" was published on 29 November 1790, initially anonymously; the second edition of "A Vindication of the Rights of Men" was published on 18 December, and this time the publisher revealed Wollstonecraft as the author.
Wollstonecraft called the French Revolution a 'glorious "chance" to obtain more virtue and happiness than hitherto blessed our globe'. Against Burke's dismissal of the Third Estate as men of no account, Wollstonecraft wrote, 'Time may show, that this obscure throng knew more of the human heart and of legislation than the profligates of rank, emasculated by hereditary effeminacy'. About the events of 5–6 October 1789, when the royal family was marched from Versailles to Paris by a group of angry housewives, Burke praised Queen Marie Antoinette as a symbol of the refined elegance of the "ancien régime", who was surrounded by 'furies from hell, in the abused shape of the vilest of women'. Wollstonecraft by contrast wrote of the same event: 'Probably you [Burke] mean women who gained a livelihood by selling vegetables or fish, who never had any advantages of education'.
Wollstonecraft was compared with such leading lights as the theologian and controversialist Joseph Priestley and Paine, whose "Rights of Man" (1791) would prove to be the most popular of the responses to Burke. She pursued the ideas she had outlined in "Rights of Men" in "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" (1792), her most famous and influential work. Wollstonecraft's fame extended across the English channel, for when the French statesmen Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord visited London in 1792, he visited her, during which she asked that French girls be given the same right to an education that French boys were being offered by the new regime in France.
Wollstonecraft left for Paris in December 1792 and arrived about a month before Louis XVI was guillotined. Britain and France were on the brink of war when she left for Paris, and many advised her not to go. France was in turmoil. She sought out other British visitors such as Helen Maria Williams and joined the circle of expatriates then in the city. During her time in Paris, Wollstonecraft associated mostly with the moderate Girondins rather than the more radical Jacobins.
On 26 December 1792, Wollstonecraft saw the former king, Louis XVI, being taken to be tried before the National Assembly, and much to her own surprise, found 'the tears flow[ing] insensibly from my eyes, when I saw Louis sitting, with more dignity than I expected from his character, in a hackney coach going to meet death, where so many of his race have triumphed'.
France declared war on Britain in February 1793. Wollstonecraft tried to leave France for Switzerland but was denied permission. In March, the Jacobin-dominated Committee of Public Safety came to power, instituting a totalitarian regime meant to mobilise France for the first 'total war'.
Life became very difficult for foreigners in France. At first, they were put under police surveillance and, to get a residency permit, had to produce six written statements from Frenchmen testifying to their loyalty to the republic. Then, on 12 April 1793, all foreigners were forbidden to leave France. Despite her sympathy for the revolution, life for Wollstonecraft become very uncomfortable, all the more so as the Girondins had lost out to the Jacobins. Some of Wollstonecraft's French friends lost their heads to the guillotine as the Jacobins set out to annihilate their enemies.
Having just written the "Rights of Woman", Wollstonecraft was determined to put her ideas to the test, and in the stimulating intellectual atmosphere of the French Revolution, she attempted her most experimental romantic attachment yet: she met and fell passionately in love with Gilbert Imlay, an American adventurer. Wollstonecraft put her own principles in practice by sleeping with Imlay even though they were not married, which was unacceptable behavior from a 'respectable' British woman. Whether or not she was interested in marriage, he was not, and she appears to have fallen in love with an idealisation of the man. Despite her rejection of the sexual component of relationships in the "Rights of Woman", Wollstonecraft discovered that Imlay awakened her interest in sex.
Wollstonecraft was to a certain extent disillusioned by what she saw in France, writing that the people under the republic still behaved slavishly to those who held power while the government remained 'venal' and 'brutal'. Despite her disenchantment, Wollstonecraft wrote:
I cannot yet give up the hope, that a fairer day is dawning on Europe, though I must hesitatingly observe, that little is to be expected from the narrow principle of commerce, which seems everywhere to be shoving aside "the point of honour" of the "noblesse" [nobility]. For the same pride of office, the same desire of power are still visible; with this aggravation, that, fearing to return to obscurity, after having but just acquired a relish for distinction, each hero, or philosopher, for all are dubbed with these new titles, endeavors to make hay while the sun shines.
Wollstonecraft was offended by the Jacobins' treatment of women. They refused to grant women equal rights, denounced 'Amazons', and made it clear that women were supposed to conform to Jean-Jacques Rousseau's ideal of helpers to men. On 16 October 1793, Marie Antoinette was guillotined; among her charges and convictions, she was found guilty of committing incest with her son. Though Wollstonecraft disliked the former queen, she was troubled that the Jacobins would make Marie Antoinette's alleged perverse sexual acts one of the central reasons for the French people to hate her.
As the daily arrests and executions of the Reign of Terror began, Wollstonecraft came under suspicion. She was, after all, a British citizen known to be a friend of leading Girondins. On 31 October 1793, most of the Girondin leaders were guillotined; when Imlay broke the news to Wollstonecraft, she fainted. By this time, Imlay was taking advantage of the British blockade of France, which had caused shortages and worsened ever-growing inflation, by chartering ships to bring food and soap from America and dodge the British Royal Navy, goods that he could sell at a premium to Frenchmen who still had money. Imlay's blockade-running gained the respect and support of some Jacobins, ensuring, as he had hoped, his freedom during the Terror. To protect Wollstonecraft from arrest, Imlay made a false statement to the U.S. embassy in Paris that he had married her, automatically making her an American citizen. Some of her friends were not so lucky; many, like Thomas Paine, were arrested, and some were even guillotined. Her sisters believed she had been imprisoned.
Wollstonecraft called life under the Jacobins 'nightmarish'. There were gigantic daytime parades requiring everyone to show themselves and lustily cheer lest they be suspected of inadequate commitment to the republic, as well as nighttime police raids to arrest 'enemies of the republic'. In a March 1794 letter to her sister Everina, Wollstonecraft wrote:
It is impossible for you to have any idea of the impression the sad scenes I have been a witness to have left on my mind ... death and misery, in every shape of terrour, haunts this devoted country—I certainly am glad that I came to France, because I never could have had else a just opinion of the most extraordinary event that has ever been recorded.
Wollstonecraft soon became pregnant by Imlay, and on 14 May 1794 she gave birth to her first child, Fanny, naming her after perhaps her closest friend. Wollstonecraft was overjoyed; she wrote to a friend, 'My little Girl begins to suck so MANFULLY that her father reckons saucily on her writing the second part of the R[igh]ts of Woman' (emphasis hers). She continued to write avidly, despite not only her pregnancy and the burdens of being a new mother alone in a foreign country, but also the growing tumult of the French Revolution. While at Le Havre in northern France, she wrote a history of the early revolution, "An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution", which was published in London in December 1794. Imlay, unhappy with the domestic-minded and maternal Wollstonecraft, eventually left her. He promised that he would return to her and Fanny at Le Havre, but his delays in writing to her and his long absences convinced Wollstonecraft that he had found another woman. Her letters to him are full of needy expostulations, which most critics explain as the expressions of a deeply depressed woman, while others say they resulted from her circumstances—a foreign woman alone with an infant in the middle of a revolution that had seen good friends imprisoned or executed.
In July 1794, Wollstonecraft welcomed the fall of the Jacobins, predicting it would be followed with a restoration of freedom of the press in France, which led her to return to Paris. In August 1794, Imlay departed for London and promised to return soon. In 1793, the British government had begun a crackdown on radicals, suspending civil liberties, imposing drastic censorship, and trying for treason anyone suspected of sympathy with the revolution, which led Wollstonecraft to fear she would be imprisoned if she returned.
The winter of 1794–95 was the coldest winter in Europe for over a century, which reduced Wollstonecraft and her daughter Fanny to desperate circumstances. The river Seine froze that winter, which made it impossible for ships to bring food and coal to Paris, leading to widespread starvation and deaths from the cold in the city. Wollstonecraft continued to write to Imlay, asking him to return to France at once, declaring she still had faith in the revolution and did not wish to return to Britain. After she left France on 7 April 1795, she continued to refer to herself as 'Mrs Imlay', even to her sisters, in order to bestow legitimacy upon her child.
The British historian Tom Furniss called "An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution" the most neglected of Wollstonecraft's books. It was first published in London in 1794, but a second edition did not appear until 1989. Later generations were more interested in her feminist writings rather than her account of the French Revolution, which Furniss has called her 'best work'. Wollstonecraft was not trained as a historian, but she used all sorts of journals, letters and documents recounting how ordinary people in France reacted to the revolution. She was trying to counteract what Furniss called the 'hysterical' anti-revolutionary mood in Britain, which depicted the revolution as due to the entire French nation's going mad. Wollstonecraft argued instead that the revolution arose from a set of social, economic and political conditions that left no other way out of the crisis that gripped France in 1789.
"An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution" was a difficult balancing act for Wollstonecraft. She condemned the Jacobin regime and the Reign of Terror, but at same time she argued that the revolution was a great achievement, which led her to stop her history in late 1789 rather than write about the Terror of 1793–94. Edmund Burke had ended his "Reflections on the Revolution in France" with reference to the events of 5–6 October 1789, when a group of women from Paris forced the French royal family from the Palace of Versailles to Paris. Burke called the women 'furies from hell', while Wollstonecraft defended them as ordinary housewives angry about the lack of bread to feed their families. Against Burke's idealised portrait of Marie Antoinette as a noble victim of a mob, Wollstonecraft portrayed the queen as a "femme fatale", a seductive, scheming and dangerous woman. Wollstonecraft argued that the values of the aristocracy corrupted women in a monarchy because women's main purpose in such a society was to bear sons to continue a dynasty, which essentially reduced a woman's value to her womb. Moreover, Wollstonecraft pointed out that unless a queen was a queen regnant, most queens were queen consorts, which meant a woman had to exercise influence via her husband or son, encouraging her to become more and more manipulative. Wollstonecraft argued that aristocratic values, by emphasising a woman's body and her ability to be charming over her mind and character, had encouraged women like Marie Antoinette to be manipulative and ruthless, making the queen into a corrupted and corrupting product of the "ancien régime".
Seeking Imlay, Wollstonecraft returned to London in April 1795, but he rejected her. In May 1795 she attempted to commit suicide, probably with laudanum, but Imlay saved her life (although it is unclear how). In a last attempt to win back Imlay, she embarked upon some business negotiations for him in Scandinavia, trying to recoup some of his losses. Wollstonecraft undertook this hazardous trip with only her young daughter and a maid. She recounted her travels and thoughts in letters to Imlay, many of which were eventually published as "Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark" in 1796. When she returned to England and came to the full realization that her relationship with Imlay was over, she attempted suicide for the second time, leaving a note for Imlay:
She then went out on a rainy night and "to make her clothes heavy with water, she walked up and down about half an hour" before jumping into the River Thames, but a stranger saw her jump and rescued her. Wollstonecraft considered her suicide attempt deeply rational, writing after her rescue, I have only to lament, that, when the bitterness of death was past, I was inhumanly brought back to life and misery. But a fixed determination is not to be baffled by disappointment; nor will I allow that to be a frantic attempt, which was one of the calmest acts of reason. In this respect, I am only accountable to myself. Did I care for what is termed reputation, it is by other circumstances that I should be dishonoured.
Gradually, Wollstonecraft returned to her literary life, becoming involved with Joseph Johnson's circle again, in particular with Mary Hays, Elizabeth Inchbald, and Sarah Siddons through William Godwin. Godwin and Wollstonecraft's unique courtship began slowly, but it eventually became a passionate love affair. Godwin had read her "Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark" and later wrote that "If ever there was a book calculated to make a man in love with its author, this appears to me to be the book. She speaks of her sorrows, in a way that fills us with melancholy, and dissolves us in tenderness, at the same time that she displays a genius which commands all our admiration." Once Wollstonecraft became pregnant, they decided to marry so that their child would be legitimate. Their marriage revealed the fact that Wollstonecraft had never been married to Imlay, and as a result she and Godwin lost many friends. Godwin received further criticism because he had advocated the abolition of marriage in his philosophical treatise "Political Justice". After their marriage on 29 March 1797, Godwin and Wollstonecraft moved to 29 The Polygon, Somers Town. Godwin rented an apartment 20 doors away at 17 Evesham Buildings in Chalton Street as a study, so that they could both still retain their independence; they often communicated by letter. By all accounts, theirs was a happy and stable, though brief, relationship.
On 30 August 1797, Wollstonecraft gave birth to her second daughter, Mary. Although the delivery seemed to go well initially, the placenta broke apart during the birth and became infected; childbed fever was a common and often fatal occurrence in the eighteenth century. After several days of agony, Wollstonecraft died of septicaemia on 10 September. Godwin was devastated: he wrote to his friend Thomas Holcroft, "I firmly believe there does not exist her equal in the world. I know from experience we were formed to make each other happy. I have not the least expectation that I can now ever know happiness again." She was buried at Old Saint Pancras Churchyard, where her tombstone reads, "Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, Author of "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman": Born 27 April 1759: Died 10 September 1797."
In January 1798 Godwin published his "Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman". Although Godwin felt that he was portraying his wife with love, compassion, and sincerity, many readers were shocked that he would reveal Wollstonecraft's illegitimate children, love affairs, and suicide attempts. The Romantic poet Robert Southey accused him of "the want of all feeling in stripping his dead wife naked" and vicious satires such as "The Unsex'd Females" were published. Godwin's "Memoirs" portrays Wollstonecraft as a woman deeply invested in feeling who was balanced by his reason and as more of a religious sceptic than her own writings suggest. Godwin's views of Wollstonecraft were perpetuated throughout the nineteenth century and resulted in poems such as "Wollstonecraft and Fuseli" by British poet Robert Browning and that by William Roscoe which includes the lines:
In 1851, Wollstonecraft's remains were moved by her grandson Percy Florence Shelley to his family tomb in St Peter's Church, Bournemouth. Her monument in the churchyard lies to the north-east of the church just north of Sir John Soane's grave. Her husband was buried with her on his death in 1836, as was his second wife, Mary Jane Godwin (1766–1841).
Wollstonecraft has what scholar Cora Kaplan labelled in 2002 a "curious" legacy that has evolved over time: "for an author-activist adept in many genres ... up until the last quarter-century Wollstonecraft's life has been read much more closely than her writing". After the devastating effect of Godwin's "Memoirs", Wollstonecraft's reputation lay in tatters for nearly a century; she was pilloried by such writers as Maria Edgeworth, who patterned the "freakish" Harriet Freke in "Belinda" (1801) after her. Other novelists such as Mary Hays, Charlotte Turner Smith, Fanny Burney, and Jane West created similar figures, all to teach a "moral lesson" to their readers. (Hays had been a close friend, and helped nurse her in her dying days.)
In contrast, there was one writer of the generation after Wollstonecraft who apparently did not share the judgmental views of her contemporaries. Jane Austen never mentioned the earlier woman by name, but several of her novels contain positive allusions to Wollstonecraft's work. The American literary scholar Anne K. Mellor notes several examples. In "Pride and Prejudice", Mr Wickham seems to be based upon the sort of man Wollstonecraft claimed that standing armies produce, while the sarcastic remarks of protagonist Elizabeth Bennet about "female accomplishments" closely echo Wollstonecraft's condemnation of these activities. The balance a woman must strike between feelings and reason in "Sense and Sensibility" follows what Wollstonecraft recommended in her novel "Mary", while the moral equivalence Austen drew in "Mansfield Park" between slavery and the treatment of women in British society tracks one of Wollstonecraft's favorite arguments. In "Persuasion", Austen's characterization of Anne Eliot (as well as her late mother before her) as better qualified than her father to manage the family estate also echoes a Wollstonecraft thesis.
Scholar Virginia Sapiro states that few read Wollstonecraft's works during the nineteenth century as "her attackers implied or stated that no self-respecting woman would read her work". (Still, as Craciun points out, new editions of "Rights of Woman" appeared in the UK in the 1840s and in the US in the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s.) If readers were few, then "many" were inspired; one such reader was Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who read "Rights of Woman" at age 12 and whose poem "Aurora Leigh" reflected Wollstonecraft's unwavering focus on education. Lucretia Mott, a Quaker minister, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Americans who met in 1840 at the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London, discovered they both had read Wollstonecraft, and they agreed upon the need for (what became) the Seneca Falls Convention, an influential women's rights meeting held in 1848. Another woman who read Wollstonecraft was George Eliot, a prolific writer of reviews, articles, novels, and translations. In 1855, she devoted an essay to the roles and rights of women, comparing Wollstonecraft and Margaret Fuller. Fuller was an American journalist, critic, and women's rights activist who, like Wollstonecraft, had travelled to the Continent and had been involved in the struggle for reform (in this case the Roman Republic)—and she had a child by a man without marrying him. Wollstonecraft's children's tales were adapted by Charlotte Mary Yonge in 1870.
Wollstonecraft's work was exhumed with the rise of the movement to give women a political voice. First was an attempt at rehabilitation in 1879 with the publication of Wollstonecraft's "Letters to Imlay, with prefatory memoir" by Charles Kegan Paul. Then followed the first full-length biography, which was by Elizabeth Robins Pennell; it appeared in 1884 as part of a series by the Roberts Brothers on famous women. Millicent Garrett Fawcett, a suffragist and later president of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, wrote the introduction to the centenary edition (i.e. 1892) of the "Rights of Woman"; it cleansed the memory of Wollstonecraft and claimed her as the foremother of the struggle for the vote. By 1898, Wollstonecraft was the subject of a first doctoral thesis and its resulting book.
With the advent of the modern feminist movement, women as politically dissimilar from each other as Virginia Woolf and Emma Goldman embraced Wollstonecraft's life story. By 1929 Woolf described Wollstonecraft—her writing, arguments, and "experiments in living"—as immortal: "she is alive and active, she argues and experiments, we hear her voice and trace her influence even now among the living". Others, however, continued to decry Wollstonecraft's lifestyle. A biography published in 1932 refers to recent reprints of her works, incorporating new research, and to a "study" in 1911, a play in 1922, and another biography in 1924. Interest in her never completely died, with full-length biographies in 1937 and 1951.
With the emergence of feminist criticism in academia in the 1960s and 1970s, Wollstonecraft's works returned to prominence. Their fortunes reflected that of the second wave of the North American feminist movement itself; for example, in the early 1970s, six major biographies of Wollstonecraft were published that presented her "passionate life in apposition to [her] radical and rationalist agenda". The feminist artwork "The Dinner Party", first exhibited in 1979, features a place setting for Wollstonecraft. In the 1980s and 1990s, yet another image of Wollstonecraft emerged, one which described her as much more a creature of her time; scholars such as Claudia Johnson, Gary Kelly, and Virginia Sapiro demonstrated the continuity between Wollstonecraft's thought and other important eighteenth-century ideas regarding topics such as sensibility, economics, and political theory.
Wollstonecraft's work has also had an effect on feminism outside the academy in recent years. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a political writer and former Muslim who is critical of Islam in general and its dictates regarding women in particular, cited the "Rights of Woman" in her autobiography "Infidel" and wrote that she was "inspired by Mary Wollstonecraft, the pioneering feminist thinker who told women they had the same ability to reason as men did and deserved the same rights". British writer Caitlin Moran, author of the best-selling "How to Be a Woman", described herself as "half Wollstonecraft" to the "New Yorker". She has also inspired more widely. Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, the Indian economist and philosopher who first identified the missing women of Asia, draws repeatedly on Wollstonecraft as a political philosopher in "The Idea of Justice".
Several plaques have been erected to honour Wollstonecraft.
The majority of Wollstonecraft's early productions are about education; she assembled an anthology of literary extracts "for the improvement of young women" entitled "The Female Reader" and she translated two children's works, Maria Geertruida van de Werken de Cambon's "Young Grandison" and Christian Gotthilf Salzmann's "Elements of Morality". Her own writings also addressed the topic. In both her conduct book "Thoughts on the Education of Daughters" (1787) and her children's book "Original Stories from Real Life" (1788), Wollstonecraft advocates educating children into the emerging middle-class ethos: self-discipline, honesty, frugality, and social contentment. Both books also emphasize the importance of teaching children to reason, revealing Wollstonecraft's intellectual debt to the important seventeenth-century educational philosopher John Locke. However, the prominence she affords religious faith and innate feeling distinguishes her work from his and links it to the discourse of sensibility popular at the end of the eighteenth century. Both texts also advocate the education of women, a controversial topic at the time and one which she would return to throughout her career, most notably in "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman". Wollstonecraft argues that well-educated women will be good wives and mothers and ultimately contribute positively to the nation.
Published in response to Edmund Burke's "Reflections on the Revolution in France" (1790), which was a defence of constitutional monarchy, aristocracy, and the Church of England, and an attack on Wollstonecraft's friend, the Rev Richard Price at the Newington Green Unitarian Church, Wollstonecraft's "A Vindication of the Rights of Men" (1790) attacks aristocracy and advocates republicanism. Hers was the first response in a pamphlet war that subsequently became known as the "Revolution Controversy", in which Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man" (1792) became the rallying cry for reformers and radicals.
Wollstonecraft attacked not only monarchy and hereditary privilege but also the language that Burke used to defend and elevate it. In a famous passage in the "Reflections", Burke had lamented: "I had thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her [Marie Antoinette] with insult.—But the age of chivalry is gone." Most of Burke's detractors deplored what they viewed as theatrical pity for the French queen—a pity they felt was at the expense of the people. Wollstonecraft was unique in her attack on Burke's gendered language. By redefining the sublime and the beautiful, terms first established by Burke himself in "A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful" (1756), she undermined his rhetoric as well as his argument. Burke had associated the beautiful with weakness and femininity and the sublime with strength and masculinity; Wollstonecraft turns these definitions against him, arguing that his theatrical "tableaux" turn Burke's readers—the citizens—into weak women who are swayed by show. In her first unabashedly feminist critique, which Wollstonecraft scholar Claudia L. Johnson argues remains unsurpassed in its argumentative force, Wollstonecraft indicts Burke's defence of an unequal society founded on the passivity of women.
In her arguments for republican virtue, Wollstonecraft invokes an emerging middle-class ethos in opposition to what she views as the vice-ridden aristocratic code of manners. Influenced by Enlightenment thinkers, she believed in progress and derides Burke for relying on tradition and custom. She argues for rationality, pointing out that Burke's system would lead to the continuation of slavery, simply because it had been an ancestral tradition. She describes an idyllic country life in which each family can have a farm that will just suit its needs. Wollstonecraft contrasts her utopian picture of society, drawn with what she says is genuine feeling, to Burke's false feeling.
The "Rights of Men" was Wollstonecraft's first overtly political work, as well as her first feminist work; as Johnson contends, "it seems that in the act of writing the later portions of "Rights of Men" she discovered the subject that would preoccupy her for the rest of her career." It was this text that made her a well-known writer.
"A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" is one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy. In it, Wollstonecraft argues that women ought to have an education commensurate with their position in society and then proceeds to redefine that position, claiming that women are essential to the nation because they educate its children and because they could be "companions" to their husbands rather than mere wives. Instead of viewing women as ornaments to society or property to be traded in marriage, Wollstonecraft maintains that they are human beings deserving of the same fundamental rights as men. Large sections of the "Rights of Woman" respond vitriolically to conduct book writers such as James Fordyce and John Gregory and educational philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who wanted to deny women an education. (Rousseau famously argues in "" (1762) that women should be educated for the pleasure of men.)
Wollstonecraft states that currently many women are silly and superficial (she refers to them, for example, as "spaniels" and "toys"), but argues that this is not because of an innate deficiency of mind but rather because men have denied them access to education. Wollstonecraft is intent on illustrating the limitations that women's deficient educations have placed on them; she writes: "Taught from their infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and, roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison." She implies that, without the encouragement young women receive from an early age to focus their attention on beauty and outward accomplishments, women could achieve much more.
While Wollstonecraft does call for equality between the sexes in particular areas of life, such as morality, she does not explicitly state that men and women are equal. What she does claim is that men and women are equal in the eyes of God. However, such claims of equality stand in contrast to her statements respecting the superiority of masculine strength and valour. Wollstonecraft famously and ambiguously writes: "Let it not be concluded that I wish to invert the order of things; I have already granted, that, from the constitution of their bodies, men seem to be designed by Providence to attain a greater degree of virtue. I speak collectively of the whole sex; but I see not the shadow of a reason to conclude that their virtues should differ in respect to their nature. In fact, how can they, if virtue has only one eternal standard? I must therefore, if I reason consequently, as strenuously maintain that they have the same simple direction, as that there is a God." Her ambiguous statements regarding the equality of the sexes have since made it difficult to classify Wollstonecraft as a modern feminist, particularly since the word did not come into existence until the 1890s.
One of Wollstonecraft's most scathing critiques in the "Rights of Woman" is of false and excessive sensibility, particularly in women. She argues that women who succumb to sensibility are "blown about by every momentary gust of feeling" and because they are "the prey of their senses" they cannot think rationally. In fact, she claims, they do harm not only to themselves but to the entire civilization: these are not women who can help refine a civilization—a popular eighteenth-century idea—but women who will destroy it. Wollstonecraft does not argue that reason and feeling should act independently of each other; rather, she believes that they should inform each other.
In addition to her larger philosophical arguments, Wollstonecraft also lays out a specific educational plan. In the twelfth chapter of the "Rights of Woman", "On National Education", she argues that all children should be sent to a "country day school" as well as given some education at home "to inspire a love of home and domestic pleasures." She also maintains that schooling should be co-educational, arguing that men and women, whose marriages are "the cement of society", should be "educated after the same model."
Wollstonecraft addresses her text to the middle-class, which she describes as the "most natural state", and in many ways the "Rights of Woman" is inflected by a bourgeois view of the world. It encourages modesty and industry in its readers and attacks the uselessness of the aristocracy. But Wollstonecraft is not necessarily a friend to the poor; for example, in her national plan for education, she suggests that, after the age of nine, the poor, except for those who are brilliant, should be separated from the rich and taught in another school.
Both of Wollstonecraft's novels criticize what she viewed as the patriarchal institution of marriage and its deleterious effects on women. In her first novel, "Mary: A Fiction" (1788), the eponymous heroine is forced into a loveless marriage for economic reasons; she fulfils her desire for love and affection outside of marriage with two passionate romantic friendships, one with a woman and one with a man. "Maria: or, The Wrongs of Woman" (1798), an unfinished novel published posthumously and often considered Wollstonecraft's most radical feminist work, revolves around the story of a woman imprisoned in an insane asylum by her husband; like Mary, Maria also finds fulfilment outside of marriage, in an affair with a fellow inmate and a friendship with one of her keepers. Neither of Wollstonecraft's novels depict successful marriages, although she posits such relationships in the "Rights of Woman". At the end of "Mary", the heroine believes she is going "to that world where there is neither marrying, nor giving in marriage", presumably a positive state of affairs.
Both of Wollstonecraft's novels also critique the discourse of sensibility, a moral philosophy and aesthetic that had become popular at the end of the eighteenth century. "Mary" is itself a novel of sensibility and Wollstonecraft attempts to use the tropes of that genre to undermine sentimentalism itself, a philosophy she believed was damaging to women because it encouraged them to rely overmuch on their emotions. In "The Wrongs of Woman" the heroine's indulgence on romantic fantasies fostered by novels themselves is depicted as particularly detrimental.
Female friendships are central to both of Wollstonecraft's novels, but it is the friendship between Maria and Jemima, the servant charged with watching over her in the insane asylum, that is the most historically significant. This friendship, based on a sympathetic bond of motherhood, between an upper-class woman and a lower-class woman is one of the first moments in the history of feminist literature that hints at a cross-class argument, that is, that women of different economic positions have the same interests because they are women.
Wollstonecraft's "Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark" is a deeply personal travel narrative. The twenty-five letters cover a wide range of topics, from sociological reflections on Scandinavia and its peoples to philosophical questions regarding identity to musings on her relationship with Imlay (although he is not referred to by name in the text). Using the rhetoric of the sublime, Wollstonecraft explores the relationship between the self and society. Reflecting the strong influence of Rousseau, "Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark" shares the themes of the French philosopher's "Reveries of a Solitary Walker" (1782): "the search for the source of human happiness, the stoic rejection of material goods, the ecstatic embrace of nature, and the essential role of sentiment in understanding". While Rousseau ultimately rejects society, however, Wollstonecraft celebrates domestic scenes and industrial progress in her text.
Wollstonecraft promotes subjective experience, particularly in relation to nature, exploring the connections between the sublime and sensibility. Many of the letters describe the breathtaking scenery of Scandinavia and Wollstonecraft's desire to create an emotional connection to that natural world. In so doing, she gives greater value to the imagination than she had in previous works. As in her previous writings, she champions the liberation and education of women. In a change from her earlier works, however, she illustrates the detrimental effects of commerce on society, contrasting the imaginative connection to the world with a commercial and mercenary one, an attitude she associates with Imlay.
"Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark" was Wollstonecraft's most popular book in the 1790s. It sold well and was reviewed positively by most critics. Godwin wrote "if ever there was a book calculated to make a man in love with its author, this appears to me to be the book." It influenced Romantic poets such as William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who drew on its themes and its aesthetic.
This is a complete list of Mary Wollstonecraft's works; all works are the first edition unless otherwise noted.
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Molecular mass
The molecular mass ("m") is the mass of a given molecule: it is measured in daltons (Da or u). Different molecules of the same compound may have different molecular masses because they contain different isotopes of an element. The related quantity relative molecular mass, as defined by IUPAC, is the ratio of the mass of a molecule to the unified atomic mass unit (also known as the dalton) and is unitless. The molecular mass and relative molecular mass are distinct from but related to the molar mass. The molar mass is defined as the mass of a given substance divided by the amount of a substance and is expressed in g/mol. The molar mass is usually the more appropriate figure when dealing with macroscopic (weigh-able) quantities of a substance.
The definition of molecular weight is most authoritatively synonymous with molecular mass; however, in common practice, it is also highly variable as are the units used in conjunction with it. Many common preparatory sources use g/mol and effectively define it as a synonym of molar mass, while more authoritative sources use Da or u and align its definition more closely with the molecular mass. Even when the molecular weight is used with the units Da or u, it is frequently as a weighted average similar to the molar mass but with different units. In molecular biology, the weight of macromolecules is referred to as their molecular weight and is expressed in kDa, although the numerical value is often approximate and representative of an average.
The terms molecular mass, molecular weight, and molar mass are often used interchangeably in areas of science where distinguishing between them is unhelpful. In other areas of science, the distinction is crucial. The molecular mass is more commonly used when referring to the mass of a single or specific well-defined molecule and less commonly than molecular weight when referring to a weighted average of a sample. Prior to the 2019 redefinition of SI base units quantities expressed in daltons (Da or u) were by definition numerically equivalent to otherwise identical quantities expressed in the units g/mol and were thus strictly numerically interchangeable. After the 20 May 2019 redefinition of units, this relationship is only nearly equivalent.
The molecular mass of small to medium size molecules, measured by mass spectrometry, can be used to determine the composition of elements in the molecule. The molecular masses of macromolecules, such as proteins, can also be determined by mass spectrometry; however, methods based on viscosity and light-scattering are also used to determine molecular mass when crystallographic or mass spectrometric data are not available.
Molecular masses are calculated from the atomic masses of each nuclide present in the molecule, while molar masses are calculated from the standard atomic weights of each element. The standard atomic weight takes into account the isotopic distribution of the element in a given sample (usually assumed to be "normal"). For example, water has a molar mass of 18.0153(3) g/mol, but individual water molecules have molecular masses which range between 18.010 564 6863(15) Da (1H16O) and 22.027 7364(9) Da (2H18O).
Atomic and molecular masses are usually reported in daltons which is defined relative to the mass of the isotope 12C (carbon 12), which by definition is equal to 12 Da. For example, the molar mass and molecular mass of methane, whose molecular formula is CH4, are calculated respectively as follows:
The more formally defined term is "relative molecular mass". Relative atomic and molecular mass values as defined are dimensionless. However, the adjective 'relative' is omitted in practice as it is universally assumed that atomic and molecular masses are relative to the mass of 12C. Additionally, the "unit" Dalton is used in common practice. The mass of 1 mol of substance is designated as molar mass. By definition, the molar mass has the units of grams per mole.
In the example above the standard atomic weight of carbon is 12.011 g/mol, not 12.00 g/mol. This is because naturally occurring carbon is a mixture of the isotopes 12C, 13C and 14C which have masses of 12 Da, 13.003355 Da, and 14.003242 Da respectively. Moreover, the proportion of the isotopes varies between samples, so 12.011 g/mol is an average value across different places on earth. By contrast, there is less variation in naturally occurring hydrogen so the standard atomic weight has less variance. The precision of the molar mass is limited by the highest variance standard atomic weight, in this example that of carbon. This uncertainty is not the same as the uncertainty in the molecular mass, which reflects variance (error) in measurement not the natural variance in isotopic abundances across the globe. In high-resolution mass spectrometry the mass isotopomers 12C1H4 and 13C1H4 are observed as distinct molecules, with molecular masses of approximately 16.031 Da and 17.035 Da, respectively. The intensity of the mass-spectrometry peaks is proportional to the isotopic abundances in the molecular species. 12C 2H 1H3 can also be observed with molecular mass of 17 Da.
In mass spectrometry, the molecular mass of a small molecule is usually reported as the monoisotopic mass, that is, the mass of the molecule containing only the most common isotope of each element. Note that this also differs subtly from the molecular mass in that the choice of isotopes is defined and thus is a single specific molecular mass of the many possibilities. The masses used to compute the monoisotopic molecular mass are found on a table of isotopic masses and are not found on a typical periodic table. The average molecular mass is often used for larger molecules since molecules with many atoms are unlikely to be composed exclusively of the most abundant isotope of each element. A theoretical average molecular mass can be calculated using the standard atomic weights found on a typical periodic table, since there is likely to be a statistical distribution of atoms representing the isotopes throughout the molecule. The average molecular mass of a sample, however, usually differs substantially from this since a single sample average is not the same as the average of many geographically distributed samples.
To a first approximation, the basis for determination of molecular mass according to Mark–Houwink relations is the fact that the intrinsic viscosity of solutions (or suspensions) of macromolecules depends on volumetric proportion of the dispersed particles in a particular solvent. Specifically, the hydrodynamic size as related to molecular mass depends on a conversion factor, describing the shape of a particular molecule. This allows the apparent molecular mass to be described from a range of techniques sensitive to hydrodynamic effects, including DLS, SEC (also known as GPC when the eluent is an organic solvent), viscometry, and diffusion ordered nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (DOSY). The apparent hydrodynamic size can then be used to approximate molecular mass using a series of macromolecule-specific standards. As this requires calibration, it's frequently described as a "relative" molecular mass determination method.
It is also possible to determine absolute molecular mass directly from light scattering, traditionally using the Zimm method. This can be accomplished either via classical static light scattering or via multi-angle light scattering detectors. Molecular masses determined by this method do not require calibration, hence the term "absolute". The only external measurement required is refractive index increment, which describes the change in refractive index with concentration.
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Metallic bonding
Metallic bonding is a type of chemical bonding that rises from the electrostatic attractive force between conduction electrons (in the form of an electron cloud of delocalized electrons) and positively charged metal ions. It may be described as the sharing of "free" electrons among a structure of positively charged ions (cations). Metallic bonding accounts for many physical properties of metals, such as strength, ductility, thermal and electrical resistivity and conductivity, opacity, and luster.
Metallic bonding is not the only type of chemical bonding a metal can exhibit, even as a pure substance. For example, elemental gallium consists of covalently-bound pairs of atoms in both liquid and solid state—these pairs form a crystal structure with metallic bonding between them. Another example of a metal–metal covalent bond is mercurous ion ().
As chemistry developed into a science it became clear that metals formed the large majority of the periodic table of the elements and great progress was made in the description of the salts that can be formed in reactions with acids. With the advent of electrochemistry, it became clear that metals generally go into solution as positively charged ions and the oxidation reactions of the metals became well understood in the electrochemical series. A picture emerged of metals as positive ions held together by an ocean of negative electrons.
With the advent of quantum mechanics, this picture was given more formal interpretation in the form of the free electron model and its further extension, the nearly free electron model. In both of these models, the electrons are seen as a gas traveling through the structure of the solid with an energy that is essentially isotropic in that it depends on the square of the magnitude, "not" the direction of the momentum vector k. In three-dimensional k-space, the set of points of the highest filled levels (the Fermi surface) should therefore be a sphere. In the nearly free correction of the model, box-like Brillouin zones are added to k-space by the periodic potential experienced from the (ionic) structure, thus mildly breaking the isotropy.
The advent of X-ray diffraction and thermal analysis made it possible to study the structure of crystalline solids, including metals and their alloys, and the construction of phase diagrams became accessible. Despite all this progress, the nature of intermetallic compounds and alloys largely remained a mystery and their study was often empirical. Chemists generally steered away from anything that did not seem to follow Dalton's and the problem was considered the domain of a different science, metallurgy.
The almost-free electron model was eagerly taken up by some researchers in this field, notably Hume-Rothery, in an attempt to explain why certain intermetallic alloys with certain compositions would form and others would not. Initially his attempts were quite successful. His idea was to add electrons to inflate the spherical Fermi-balloon inside the series of Brillouin-boxes and determine when a certain box would be full. This indeed predicted a fairly large number of observed alloy compositions. Unfortunately, as soon as cyclotron resonance became available and the shape of the balloon could be determined, it was found that the assumption that the balloon was spherical did not hold at all, except perhaps in the case of caesium. This reduced many of the conclusions to examples of how a model can sometimes give a whole series of correct predictions, yet still be wrong.
The free-electron debacle showed researchers that the model assuming that the ions were in a sea of free electrons needed modification, and so a number of quantum mechanical models such as band structure calculations based on molecular orbitals or the density functional theory were developed. In these models, one either departs from the atomic orbitals of neutral atoms that share their electrons or (in the case of density functional theory) departs from the total electron density. The free-electron picture has, nevertheless, remained a dominant one in education.
The electronic band structure model became a major focus not only for the study of metals but even more so for the study of semiconductors. Together with the electronic states, the vibrational states were also shown to form bands. Rudolf Peierls showed that, in the case of a one-dimensional row of metallic atoms, say hydrogen, an instability had to arise that would lead to the breakup of such a chain into individual molecules. This sparked an interest in the general question: When is collective metallic bonding stable and when will a more localized form of bonding take its place? Much research went into the study of clustering of metal atoms.
As powerful as the concept of the band structure proved to be in the description of metallic bonding, it does have a drawback. It remains a one-electron approximation to a multitudinous many-body problem. In other words, the energy states of each electron are described as if all the other electrons simply form a homogeneous background. Researchers like Mott and Hubbard realized that this was perhaps appropriate for strongly delocalized s- and p-electrons but for d-electrons, and even more for f-electrons the interaction with electrons (and atomic displacements) in the local environment may become stronger than the delocalization that leads to broad bands. Thus, the transition from localized unpaired electrons to itinerant ones partaking in metallic bonding became more comprehensible.
The combination of two phenomena gives rise to metallic bonding: delocalization of electrons and the availability of a far larger number of delocalized energy states than of delocalized electrons. The latter could be called electron deficiency.
Graphene is an example of two-dimensional metallic bonding. Its metallic bonds are similar to aromatic bonding in benzene, naphthalene, anthracene, ovalene, and so on.
Metal aromaticity in metal clusters is another example of delocalization, this time often in three-dimensional entities. Metals take the delocalization principle to its extreme and one could say that a crystal of a metal represents a single molecule over which all conduction electrons are delocalized in all three dimensions. This means that inside the metal one can generally not distinguish molecules, so that the metallic bonding is neither intra- nor intermolecular. 'Nonmolecular' would perhaps be a better term. Metallic bonding is mostly non-polar, because even in alloys there is little difference among the electronegativities of the atoms participating in the bonding interaction (and, in pure elemental metals, none at all). Thus, metallic bonding is an extremely delocalized communal form of covalent bonding. In a sense, metallic bonding is not a 'new' type of bonding at all, therefore, and it describes the bonding only as present in a "chunk" of condensed matter, be it crystalline solid, liquid, or even glass. Metallic vapors by contrast are often atomic (Hg) or at times contain molecules like Na2 held together by a more conventional covalent bond. This is why it is not correct to speak of a single 'metallic bond'.
The delocalization is most pronounced for - and -electrons. For caesium it is so strong that the electrons are virtually free from the caesium atoms to form a gas constrained only by the surface of the metal. For caesium, therefore, the picture of Cs+ ions held together by a negatively charged electron gas is not too inaccurate. For other elements the electrons are less free, in that they still experience the potential of the metal atoms, sometimes quite strongly. They require a more intricate quantum mechanical treatment (e.g., tight binding) in which the atoms are viewed as neutral, much like the carbon atoms in benzene. For - and especially -electrons the delocalization is not strong at all and this explains why these electrons are able to continue behaving as unpaired electrons that retain their spin, adding interesting magnetic properties to these metals.
Metal atoms contain few electrons in their valence shells relative to their periods or energy levels. They are electron deficient elements and the communal sharing does not change that. There remain far more available energy states than there are shared electrons. Both requirements for conductivity are therefore fulfilled: strong delocalization and partly filled energy bands. Such electrons can therefore easily change from one energy state into a slightly different one. Thus, not only do they become delocalized, forming a sea of electrons permeating the structure, but they are also able to migrate through the structure when an external electrical field is imposed, leading to electrical conductivity. Without the field, there are electrons moving equally in all directions. Under the field, some will adjust their state slightly, adopting a different wave vector. As a consequence, there will be more moving one way than the other and a net current will result.
The freedom of conduction electrons to migrate also give metal atoms, or layers of them, the capacity to slide past each other. Locally, bonds can easily be broken and replaced by new ones after the deformation. This process does not affect the communal metallic bonding very much. This gives rise to metals' typical characteristic phenomena of malleability and ductility. This is particularly true for pure elements. In the presence of dissolved impurities, the defects in the structure that function as cleavage points may get blocked and the material becomes harder. Gold, for example, is very soft in pure form (24-karat), which is why alloys of 18-karat or lower are preferred in jewelry.
Metals are typically also good conductors of heat, but the conduction electrons only contribute partly to this phenomenon. Collective (i.e., delocalized) vibrations of the atoms known as phonons that travel through the solid as a wave, contribute strongly.
However, the latter also holds for a substance like diamond. It conducts heat quite well but "not" electricity. The latter is "not" a consequence of the fact that delocalization is absent in diamond, but simply that carbon is not electron deficient.
The electron deficiency is an important point in distinguishing metallic from more conventional covalent bonding. Thus, we should amend the expression given above into: "Metallic bonding is an extremely delocalized communal form of electron deficient covalent bonding".
Metallic radius is defined as one-half of the distance between the two adjacent metal ions in the metallic structure. This radius depends on the nature of the atom as well as its environment—specifically, on the coordination number (CN), which in turn depends on the temperature and applied pressure.
When comparing periodic trends in the size of atoms it is often desirable to apply so-called Goldschmidt correction, which converts the radii to the values the atoms would have if they were 12-coordinated. Since metallic radii are always biggest for the highest coordination number, correction for less dense coordinations involves multiplying by x, where 0 < x < 1. Specifically, for CN = 4, x = 0.88; for CN = 6, x = 0.96, and for CN = 8, x = 0.97. The correction is named after Victor Goldschmidt who obtained the numerical values quoted above.
The radii follow general periodic trends: they decrease across the period due to increase in the effective nuclear charge, which is not offset by the increased number of valence electrons. The radii also increase down the group due to increase in principal quantum number. Between rows 3 and 4, the lanthanide contraction is observed – there is very little increase of the radius down the group due to the presence of poorly shielding f orbitals.
The atoms in metals have a strong attractive force between them. Much energy is required to overcome it. Therefore, metals often have high boiling points, with tungsten (5828 K) being extremely high. A remarkable exception is the elements of the zinc group: Zn, Cd, and Hg. Their electron configuration ends in ...ns2 and this comes to resemble a noble gas configuration like that of helium more and more when going down in the periodic table because the energy distance to the empty np orbitals becomes larger. These metals are therefore relatively volatile, and are avoided in ultra-high vacuum systems.
Otherwise, metallic bonding can be very strong, even in molten metals, such as Gallium. Even though gallium will melt from the heat of one's hand just above room temperature, its boiling point is not far from that of copper. Molten gallium is, therefore, a very nonvolatile liquid thanks to its strong metallic bonding.
The strong bonding of metals in the liquid form demonstrates that the energy of a metallic bond is not a strong function of the direction of the metallic bond; this lack of bond directionality is a direct consequence of electron delocalization, and is best understood in contrast to the directional bonding of covalent bonds. The energy of a metallic bond is thus mostly a function of the number of electrons which surround the metallic atom, as exemplified by the Embedded atom model. This typically results in metals assuming relatively simple, close-packed crystal structures, such as FCC, BCC, and HCP.
Given high enough cooling rates and appropriate alloy composition, metallic bonding can occur even in glasses with an amorphous structure.
Much biochemistry is mediated by the weak interaction of metal ions and biomolecules. Such interactions and their associated conformational change has been measured using dual polarisation interferometry.
Metals are insoluble in water or organic solvents unless they undergo a reaction with them. Typically this is an oxidation reaction that robs the metal atoms of their itinerant electrons, destroying the metallic bonding. However metals are often readily soluble in each other while retaining the metallic character of their bonding. Gold, for example, dissolves easily in mercury, even at room temperature. Even in solid metals, the solubility can be extensive. If the structures of the two metals are the same, there can even be complete solid solubility, as in the case of electrum, the alloys of silver and gold. At times, however, two metals will form alloys with different structures than either of the two parents. One could call these materials metal compounds, but, because materials with metallic bonding are typically not molecular, Dalton's law of integral proportions is not valid and often a range of stoichiometric ratios can be achieved. It is better to abandon such concepts as 'pure substance' or 'solute' is such cases and speak of phases instead. The study of such phases has traditionally been more the domain of metallurgy than of chemistry, although the two fields overlap considerably.
The metallic bonding in complicated compounds does not necessarily involve all constituent elements equally. It is quite possible to have an element or more that do not partake at all. One could picture the conduction electrons flowing around them like a river around an island or a big rock. It is possible to observe which elements do partake, e.g., by looking at the core levels in an X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) spectrum. If an element partakes, its peaks tend to be skewed.
Some intermetallic materials e.g. do exhibit metal clusters, reminiscent of molecules and these compounds are more a topic of chemistry than of metallurgy. The formation of the clusters could be seen as a way to 'condense out' (localize) the electron deficient bonding into bonds of a more localized nature. Hydrogen is an extreme example of this form of condensation. At high pressures it is a metal. The core of the planet Jupiter could be said to be held together by a combination of metallic bonding and high pressure induced by gravity. At lower pressures however the bonding becomes entirely localized into a regular covalent bond. The localization is so complete that the (more familiar) H2 gas results. A similar argument holds for an element like boron. Though it is electron deficient compared to carbon, it does not form a metal. Instead it has a number of complicated structures in which icosahedral B12 clusters dominate. Charge density waves are a related phenomenon.
As these phenomena involve the movement of the atoms towards or away from each other, they can be interpreted as the coupling between the electronic and the vibrational states (i.e. the phonons) of the material. A different such electron-phonon interaction is thought to cause a very different result at low temperatures, that of superconductivity. Rather than blocking the mobility of the charge carriers by forming electron pairs in localized bonds, Cooper-pairs are formed that no longer experience any resistance to their mobility.
The presence of an ocean of mobile charge carriers has profound effects on the optical properties of metals. They can only be understood by considering the electrons as a "collective" rather than considering the states of individual electrons involved in more conventional covalent bonds.
Light consists of a combination of an electrical and a magnetic field. The electrical field is usually able to excite an elastic response from the electrons involved in the metallic bonding. The result is that photons are not able to penetrate very far into the metal and are typically reflected. They bounce off, although some may also be absorbed. This holds equally for all photons of the visible spectrum, which is why metals are often silvery white or grayish with the characteristic specular reflection of metallic luster. The balance between reflection and absorption determines how white or how gray they are, although surface tarnish can obscure such observations. Silver, a very good metal with high conductivity is one of the whitest.
Notable exceptions are reddish copper and yellowish gold. The reason for their color is that there is an upper limit to the frequency of the light that metallic electrons can readily respond to, the plasmon frequency. At the plasmon frequency, the frequency-dependent dielectric function of the free electron gas goes from negative (reflecting) to positive (transmitting); higher frequency photons are not reflected at the surface, and do not contribute to the color of the metal. There are some materials like indium tin oxide (ITO) that are metallic conductors (actually degenerate semiconductors) for which this threshold is in the infrared, which is why they are transparent in the visible, but good mirrors in the IR.
For silver the limiting frequency is in the far UV, but for copper and gold it is closer to the visible. This explains the colors of these two metals. At the surface of a metal resonance effects known as surface plasmons can result. They are collective oscillations of the conduction electrons like a ripple in the electronic ocean. However, even if photons have enough energy they usually do not have enough momentum to set the ripple in motion. Therefore, plasmons are hard to excite on a bulk metal. This is why gold and copper still look like lustrous metals albeit with a dash of color. However, in colloidal gold the metallic bonding is confined to a tiny metallic particle, preventing the oscillation wave of the plasmon from 'running away'. The momentum selection rule is therefore broken, and the plasmon resonance causes an extremely intense absorption in the green with a resulting beautiful purple-red color. Such colors are orders of magnitude more intense than ordinary absorptions seen in dyes and the like that involve individual electrons and their energy states.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19838
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Methyl group
A methyl group is an alkyl derived from methane, containing one carbon atom bonded to three hydrogen atoms — CH3. In formulas, the group is often abbreviated Me. Such hydrocarbon groups occur in many organic compounds. It is a very stable group in most molecules. While the methyl group is usually part of a larger molecule, it can be found on its own in any of three forms: anion, cation or radical. The anion has eight valence electrons, the radical seven and the cation six. All three forms are highly reactive and rarely observed.
The methylium cation (CH3+) exists in the gas phase, but is otherwise not encountered. Some compounds are considered to be sources of the CH3+ cation, and this simplification is used pervasively in organic chemistry. For example, protonation of methanol gives an electrophilic methylating reagent that reacts by the SN2 pathway:
Similarly, methyl iodide and methyl triflate are viewed as the equivalent of the methyl cation because they readily undergo SN2 reactions by weak nucleophiles.
The methanide anion (CH3−) exists only in rarefied gas phase or under exotic conditions. It can be produced by electrical discharge in ketene at low pressure (less than one torr) and its enthalpy of reaction is determined to be about 252.2±3.3 kJ/mol.
In discussing mechanisms of organic reactions, methyl lithium and related Grignard reagents are often considered to be salts of "CH3−"; and though the model may be useful for description and analysis, it is only a useful fiction. Such reagents are generally prepared from the methyl halides:
where M is an alkali metal.
The methyl radical has the formula CH3. It exists in dilute gases, but in more concentrated form it readily dimerizes to ethane. It can be produced by thermal decomposition of only certain compounds, especially those with an -N=N- linkage.
The reactivity of a methyl group depends on the adjacent substituents. Methyl groups can be quite unreactive. For example, in organic compounds, the methyl group resists attack by even the strongest acids.
The oxidation of a methyl group occurs widely in nature and industry. The oxidation products derived from methyl are CH2OH, CHO, and CO2H. For example, permanganate often converts a methyl group to a carboxyl (-COOH) group, e.g. the conversion of toluene to benzoic acid. Ultimately oxidation of methyl groups gives protons and carbon dioxide, as seen in combustion.
Demethylation (the transfer of the methyl group to another compound) is a common process, and reagents that undergo this reaction are called methylating agents. Common methylating agents are dimethyl sulfate, methyl iodide, and methyl triflate. Methanogenesis, the source of natural gas, arises via a demethylation reaction. Together with ubiquitin and phosphorylation, methylation is a major biochemical process for modifying protein function.
Certain methyl groups can be deprotonated. For example, the acidity of the methyl groups in acetone ((CH3)2CO) is about 1020 more acidic than methane. The resulting carbanions are key intermediates in many reactions in organic synthesis and biosynthesis. Fatty acids are produced in this way.
When placed in benzylic or allylic positions, the strength of the C-H bond is decreased, and the reactivity of the methyl group increases. One manifestation of this enhanced reactivity is the photochemical chlorination of the methyl group in toluene to give benzyl chloride.
In the special case where one hydrogen is replaced by deuterium (D) and another hydrogen by tritium (T), the methyl substituent becomes chiral. Methods exist to produce optically pure methyl compounds, e.g., chiral acetic acid (CHDTCO2H). Through the use of chiral methyl groups, the stereochemical course of several biochemical transformations have been analyzed.
A methyl group may rotate around the R—C-axis. This is a free rotation only in the simplest cases like gaseous CClH3. In most molecules, the remainder R breaks the formula_1 symmetry of the R—C-axis and creates a potential formula_2 that restricts the free motion of the three protons. For the model case of C2H6 this is discussed under the name ethane barrier.
In condensed phases, neighbour molecules also contribute to the potential. Methyl group rotation can be experimentally studied using quasielastic neutron scattering.
French chemists Jean-Baptiste Dumas and Eugene Peligot, after determining methanol's chemical structure, introduced "methylene" from the Greek "methy" "wine" and "hȳlē" "wood, patch of trees" with the intention of highlighting its origins, "alcohol made from wood (substance)". The term "methyl" was derived in about 1840 by back-formation from "methylene", and was then applied to describe "methyl alcohol" (which since 1892 is called "methanol").
"Methyl" is the IUPAC nomenclature of organic chemistry term for an alkane (or alkyl) molecule, using the prefix "meth-" to indicate the presence of a single carbon.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19839
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Mild ale
Mild ale is a type of ale, with a predominantly malty palate. Modern mild ales are mainly dark-coloured with an alcohol by volume (ABV) of 3% to 3.6%, although there are lighter-hued examples as well as stronger examples reaching 6% abv and higher. It originated in Britain in the 17th century or earlier, and originally meant a young ale, as opposed to a "stale" aged or old ale. It is now more often interpreted as being mildly hopped.
Light mild is generally similar, but pale in colour, for instance Harveys Brewery Knots of May. There is some overlap between the weakest styles of bitter and light mild, with the term AK being used to refer to both. The designation of such beers as "bitter" or "mild" has tended to change with fashion. A good example is McMullen's AK, which was re-badged as a bitter after decades as a light mild. AK (a very common beer name in the 19th century) was often referred to as a "mild bitter beer", interpreting "mild" as "unaged".
Once sold in most pubs, mild experienced a sharp decline in popularity in the 1960s, and was in danger of completely disappearing, but the increase of microbreweries has led to a modest renaissance and an increasing number of milds (sometimes labelled "Dark") being brewed.
The Campaign for Real Ale has designated May as Mild Month. In the United States, a group of beer bloggers organised the first American Mild Month for May 2015, with forty-five participating breweries across the country.
"Mild" was originally used to designate any beer which was young, fresh or unaged and did not refer to a specific style of beer. Thus there was Mild Ale but also Mild Porter and even Mild Bitter Beer. These young beers were often blended with aged "stale" beer to improve their flavour. As the 19th century progressed public taste moved away from the aged taste; unblended young beer, mostly in the form of Mild Ale or Light Bitter Beer, began to dominate the market.
In the 19th century a typical brewery produced three or four mild ales, usually designated by a number of X marks, the weakest being X, the strongest XXXX. They were considerably stronger than the milds of today, with the gravity ranging from around 1.055 to 1.072 (about 5.5% to 7% abv). Gravities dropped throughout the late 19th century and by 1914 the weakest milds were down to about 1.045, still considerably stronger than modern versions.
The draconian measures applied to the brewing industry during the First World War had a particularly dramatic effect upon mild. As the biggest-selling beer, it suffered the largest cut in gravity when breweries had to limit the average OG of their beer to 1.030. In order to be able to produce some stronger beer - which was exempt from price controls and thus more profitable - mild was reduced to 1.025 or lower.
Modern dark mild varies from dark amber to near-black in colour and is very light-bodied. Its flavour is dominated by malt, sometimes with roasty notes derived from the use of black malt, with a subdued hop character, though there are some quite bitter examples. Most are in the range 1.030–1.036 (3–3.6% abv).
Light mild is generally similar, but paler in colour. Some dark milds are created by the addition of caramel to a pale beer.
Until the 1960s mild was the most popular beer style in England. Pockets of demand remain, particularly in the West Midlands and North West England, but has been largely ousted by bitter and lager elsewhere. In 2002, only 1.3% of beer sold in pubs was Mild. Mild's popularity in Wales, in particular, persisted as a relatively low-alcohol, sweet drink for coal miners. Some brewers have continued to produce mild, but have found it sells better under a different name: for instance, Brains's mild was renamed Dark. Outside the United Kingdom mild is virtually unknown, with the exception of Old in New South Wales and some microbrewery recreations in North America and Scandinavia. Some notable examples of Milds are: Bank's Mild, Cain's Dark Mild, Highgate Dark Mild, Brain's Dark, Moorehouse Blackcat, Rudgate Ruby Mild, and Theakston Traditional Mild
A popular drink in the West Midlands, "brown and mild" (also known as a "boilermaker") is a half pint of draught mild served mixed with a half pint of bottled brown ale in a pint glass. In North West England, a mixture of half a pint of mild and half a pint of bitter is known as a "mixed". In Norfolk, the same mixture was called a pint of "twos".
Mild ales are generally based on mild malt or pale malt. Most milds contain, in addition, a quantity of crystal malt; dark milds, meanwhile, make use of chocolate malt, black malt or dark brewing sugars. Milds tend to be lightly hopped compared to pale ale and are usually low in alcohol; strong mild ales used to reach six or seven per cent abv, but very few such beers are still brewed. Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby Mild, brewed to a pre-World War I recipe, is a rare example of a strong Mild (6.0% ABV).
As part of the first American Mild Month, the project organizers challenged participating breweries to create a new variation on the mild ale style by brewing with American malts and hops. They defined American Mild as "a restrained, darkish ale, with gentle hopping and a clean finish so that the malt and what hops are present, shine through".
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19842
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Mars Society
The Mars Society is an American worldwide volunteer-driven space-advocacy non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the human exploration and settlement of the planet Mars. Inspired by "The Case for Mars" conferences which were hosted by The Mars Underground at the University of Colorado Boulder, the Mars Society was established by Dr. Robert Zubrin and others in 1998 with the goal of educating the public, the media and government on the benefits of exploring Mars, the importance of planning for a humans-to-Mars mission in the coming decades and the need to create a permanent human presence on the Red Planet.
Mars Society, Inc. was formally established in September 1997 under the Colorado Non-Profit Corporation Act. In August 1998 more than 700 delegates – astronomers, scientists, engineers, astronauts, entrepreneurs, educators, students and space enthusiasts – attended a week-end of talks and presentations from leading Mars exploration advocates. Since then, the Mars Society, guided by its steering committee, has grown to over 5,000 members and some 6,000 associate supporters across more than 50 countries around the world. Members of the Mars Society are from all walks of life and actively work to promote the ideals of space exploration and the opportunities for exploring the Red Planet. In 2017 the Marspedia encyclopedia became an official project of the Mars Society.
The Mars Society's goals aren't purely theoretical. Its aim is to show that Mars is an achievable goal through a practical series of technical and other projects, including:
In addition, the Society:
The current board of directors of the Mars Society includes Robert Zubrin (chairman) and James Heiser.
Notable members of its steering committee include Buzz Aldrin and Peter H. Smith.
Notable former members of the board of directors or steering committee of the Mars Society include Kim Stanley Robinson, Michael D. Griffin, Christopher McKay, and Pascal Lee.
The Society is an organization member of the Alliance for Space Development.
The Mars Society has chapters in the U.S. and around the world. Many of these chapters undertake scientific, engineering and political initiatives to further the Mars Society's goals. Some accomplishments of Mars Society chapters are listed below:
Mars Society of Canada:
Northern California Chapter of the Mars Society:
The San Diego Chapter of the Mars Society
Dallas Chapter of the Mars Society:
Mars Society Seattle:
The ASF (Österreichisches Weltraum Forum, OeWF) is a national network for aerospace and space enthusiasts, being the Austrian chapter of the Mars Society. The Forum serves as a communication platform between the space sector and the public; it is embedded in a global network of specialists from the space industry, research and policy. Hence, the OeWF facilitates a strengthening of the national space sector through enhancing the public visibility of space activities, technical workshops, and conferences as well as Forum-related projects.
Their research focus is Mars Analogue Research, e.g. the AustroMars mission with roughly 130 volunteers supporting a mission simulation at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) and the ongoing PolAres, a multi-year research program which encompass the development of a Mars analogue rover system and a novel spacesuit prototype dubbed "Aouda.X", culminating in an arctic expedition in 2011.
The Forum has a small, but a highly active pool of professional members contributing to space endeavors, mostly in cooperation with other nations as well as international space organizations. The spectrum of their activities ranges from simple classroom presentation to 15.000-visitors space exhibitions, from expert reports for the Austrian Federal Ministry for Technology to space technology transfer activities for terrestrial applications.
The Mars Society French chapter (Association Planète Mars) was established in 1999 as "Association Planète Mars", a non-profit organization with its headquarters in Paris. Its founder and president is Richard Heidmann, a space propulsion engineer, who participated in the founding convention of the Mars Society in August 1998 and is a member of the Mars Society Steering Committee.
While fully supporting the ideas and actions of the Mars Society, it considers that those must be adapted to the specific cultural and political context of France and Europe.
The main activities of Association Planète Mars are devoted to public communication, through conferences, exhibits, events, media appearances (TV, radio, magazines...). It also acts occasionally as an adviser for journalists or film makers.
Whenever possible, it cooperates with other associations or science outreach organisms, which permits to reinforce its action and reach a wider public.
Association Planète Mars seeks to interest younger people: 25% of its paid members are under the age of 25. It aims to encourage Mars-related projects to be undertaken by engineering students. The association also encourages the formation of working groups on miscellaneous topics. Today, three groups are active, respectively on mission safety, Martian architecture and medical aspects. It has participated in several MDRS and FMARS missions, including a prototype of a "Cliff Exploration Vehicle".
Another major field of action is lobbying, aiming at both political and institutional groups, in France and at the European level (European Council, ESA). In doing so, it relies on the networks established by some of its managers. On the occasion of most critical events, the association publishes political documents to support its views, which are distributed both to opinion formers and to the press. This has been the case in June 2004, in the wake of the US Space Exploration Initiative, and in September 2008 in preparation of the ESA ministerial council.
The German Chapter of the Mars Society (Mars Society Deutschland e.V. | "eingetragener Verein" | - MSD) was founded in 2001 based on the Founding Declaration of the Mars Society of the US from 1998 and has about 230 members. The MSD is registered in Germany as a non-profit association ("gemeinnütziger Verein"). Registered members pay a yearly membership fee of 60 Euro. However, students and firms pay a different fee. The activities of the MSD are focused on technical-scientific projects such as the Mars Balloon Probe ARCHIMEDES as well as on all Mars exploration and general manned space matters. The main means of communication with members and the general public is the MSD Website with information on the ARCHIMEDES project, publications on Mars and other space subjects, the regular news, which can be commented by visitors of the website, the Space Forum and informative meetings.
The MSD Board comprises five members. Since June 2009 its president is the Space Physicist Dr. Michael Danielides.
The development of ARCHIMEDES is led by Dipl. Ing. Hannes Griebel, who is also a member of the MSD Board and prepares his doctorate thesis on ARCHIMEDES.
ARCHIMEDES is presently under development and the major project of the MSD since 2001. Starting in 2006, flight tests have been undertaken for testing the innovative balloon system in the low-gravity environment. Test carriers were so far the Airbus A300 for short duration parabolic flights and the sounding rocket test campaigns REXUS3-REGINA and REXUS4-MIRIAM for longer duration flight tests under free space conditions. Further flights tests are planned for the coming years (e.g. MIRIAM II) with the objective of qualifying ARCHIMEDES for its Mars mission by 2018. ARCHIMEDES will be carried to Mars on board an AMSAT Mars Probe or a similar satellite. ARCHIMEDES is developed by the MSD with the support of the Bundeswehr University Munich, of the IABG in Ottobrunn, the DLR-MORABA for rocket flight opportunities, other universities, and several industrial companies supporting specific technical areas.
The Mars Society Netherlands chapter was wound up in 2011. The board and members moved over to a new Mars-oriented organization.
The Dutch Mars Society is being relaunched in 2019.
The Polish Mars society (Mars Society Polska (MSP)) is actively participating in the creation of the Polish space industry. Since this sector is still developing, the organization is taking the opportunity to provide a strong Mars-related element for the years to come. Poland was the last member state of the EU to sign the cooperation agreement with ESA. Most projects in Poland currently focus on satellite technology, so MSP is the only leading organization promoting exploration and manned spaceflight. Besides private sponsors, it relies on resources obtained from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education and local authorities, proposing projects to be undertaken with local communities and thus engaging with the general public.
MSP's first project was the Polish MPV (pressurized rover) design, for which some hardware was produced. This enabled development of the Polish Mars Society itself, together with a number of educational activities for Polish schools. This was followed by the joint organization of the Polish edition of the Red Rover Goes to Mars contest and organization of a Mars colonization negotiation game (Columbia Memorial Negotiations). In 2007 MSP organized the first Mars Festival, a two-day event which drew 600 visitors, with Discovery Channel as the main sponsor. Mars Festival 2008 was smaller due to the efforts being made in other projects, particularly the Polish URC rover, named Skarabeusz.
The flagship MSP project is the Polish Martian habitat, based on a design by Janek Kozicki. It has three inflatable modules attached and a usable surface of 900 m². The habitat is to be located close to a large town, meaning that beyond its role as a test site, largely for materials and design, it will be accessible to the wider public and media.
MSP has established a constant presence in the mainstream Polish media and is working on a documentary about itself. It is also developing software projects, IT systems for the future martian habitat, with a Virtual Mars Base and remote access. Jan Kotlarz of MSP has created RODM software for the modeling of the Martian surface based on high-resolution photographs from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. RODM is currently being tested by NASA and ESA.
The Mars Society Switzerland ("MSS") was founded in February 2010. It covers the French and German speaking parts of Switzerland. It keeps close links with the French branch ("association planète Mars", see above).
Its aim is to convince the Swiss public of the interest and feasibility of the Martian exploration with inhabited flights through the Mars direct concept such as described by Robert Zubrin. It wants to gather around the scientists working on Mars in Switzerland, all people who share their interest on the matter.
In November 2010, MSS participated to the 8th Swiss Geoscience Meeting which was the opportunity to discuss the main topics related to Mars geology, the making of the planet, the role of water and the atmosphere.
In 2011 (September 30 until October 2), MSS held the 11th European Mars Convention ("EMC11") in the frame of the University of Neuchâtel. Through 24 presentations and two debates with major Swiss media, this convention covered all subjects related to Mars exploration; from astronautics to architecture, including the study of geology which remains its key objective.
On September 10, 2012, in the Natural History Museum Bern ("NHMB"), it held a conference on the theme "Searching for Life on Mars".
The conference was centered upon a presentation by Professor André Maeder (a well-known astrophysicist at the University of Geneva) following the publishing of his book "L'unique Terre habitée?" (Favre editions). Another presentation was made by Dr. Beda Hofmann, Head of the Earth Science Dept. of the NHMB. He showed and commented photos of primitive forms of life which he gathered to serve as references for the observations to be made by the ESA ExoMars mission (to be launched in 2018).
Pierre Brisson, president of the Mars Society Switzerland introduced the conference, speaking about the instruments aboard Curiosity and the targets of exploration of the rover.
In October (12th till 14th) The Mars Society Switzerland participated to the 12th EMC ("EMC12") in Neubiberg, Germany (University of the German Armed Forces, near Münich). In this frame, Pierre Brisson discussed the past possibility of an Ocean in the Northern Lowlands of the planet.
A key event of the year 2013 (March 26), was a conference organized with "Club 44" in La Chaux de Fonds, during which Professor Michel Cabane, LATMOS and co-PI of the SAM Instruments aboard Curiosity, presented the findings of his instruments dedicated to the study of the molecular and atomic compositions of the rocks and atmosphere of the planet Mars.
The Mars Society UK is the oldest Mars Society outside the United States. It held its first public meeting on July 4, 1998, in London. Professor Colin Pillinger, head of the Beagle 2 project, was the Guest Speaker, and the event marked the first time Beagle 2 had been presented to the general public in the UK. From 1998 through to 2003, the Mars society UK (MSUK) continued to support Beagle 2, providing numerous public events at which members of the Beagle 2 project team could speak, and the Beagle 2 model be displayed.
Highlights of the MSUK's history include:
The Mars Society India chapter (MSI) was founded in January 2012 by Dhruv Joshi, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. Dhruv Joshi was inspired to set up the chapter in India after he attended a presentation by Mars society Switzerland chapter; during his visit to Switzerland. MSI was launched on March 2, 2012 at Mumbai, with collaboration from Nehru center (Planetarium) and students of Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay (IIT-B). MSI endeavors to set a platform for bringing immense talent pool of Indian students to the forefront and achieve country's ambitious space missions.
Mars Society Bangladesh chapter was found in 2016. A group of 40 students and three teams from Bangladesh participated in 2016 University Rover Challenge (URC 2016) powered by Mars Society, held in June 2016 at Utah, USA.
There is a chapter in Australia, with branches in Australian Capital Territory (ACT), New South Wales (NSW), Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia. The main goals for Mars Society Australia are to support government funded programs geared towards exploring Mars and reach out to the public about both exploring Mars and the importance of studying planetary sciences and engineering.
The NZ Mars Society has the same list of goals as Australia. In an effort to help put people on Mars, they plan to have their members test surface exploration strategies and technologies in locations dedicated to Mars analogue. One of these Mars analogue locations is Mars Desert Research Station in Utah.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19843
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Minerva
Minerva (; ) is the Roman goddess of wisdom and strategic warfare, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. Minerva is not a patron of violence such as Mars, but of defensive war only. From the second century BC onward, the Romans equated her with the Greek goddess Athena. Minerva is one of the three Roman deities in the Capitoline Triad, along with Jupiter and Juno.
She was the virgin goddess of music, poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving, and the crafts. She is often depicted with her sacred creature, an owl usually named as the "owl of Minerva", which symbolised her association with wisdom and knowledge as well as, less frequently, the snake and the olive tree. Minerva is commonly depicted as tall with an athletic and muscular build, as well as wearing armour and carrying a spear. Marcus Terentius Varro considered her to be ideas and the plan for the universe personified.
The name "Minerva" stems from Proto-Italic "*meneswo" ('intelligent, understanding'), and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) "*menos" ('thought'). Helmut Rix (1981) and Gerhard Meiser (1998) have proposed the PIE derivative "*menes-ueh₂" ('provided with a mind, intelligent') as the transitional form.
Following the Greek myths around Athena, she was born of Metis, who had been swallowed by Jupiter, and burst from her father's head, fully armed and clad in armor. Jupiter forcibly impregnated the titaness Metis, which resulted in her attempting to change shape (or shapeshift) to escape him. Jupiter then recalled the prophecy that his own child would overthrow him as he had Saturn, and in turn, Saturn had Caelus.
Fearing that their child would be male, and would grow stronger than he was and rule the Heavens in his place, Jupiter swallowed Metis whole after tricking her into turning herself into a fly. The titaness gave birth to Minerva and forged weapons and armor for her child while within Jupiter's body. In some versions of the story, Metis continued to live inside of Jupiter's mind as the source of his wisdom. Others say she was simply a vessel for the birth of Minerva. The constant pounding and ringing left Jupiter with agonizing pain. To relieve the pain, Vulcan used a hammer to split Jupiter's head and, from the cleft, Minerva emerged, whole, adult, and in full battle armor.
Minerva is a prominent figure in Roman Mythology. She appears throughout many famous myths. Many of the stories of her Greek counterpart Athena are attributed to Minerva in Roman mythology, such as that of the naming of Athens resulting from a competition between Minerva and Neptune (mythology), in which Minerva created the olive tree.
Arachne was a mortal highly proficient in weaving and embroidery. Not only were her finished works that were beautiful, but also her process, so much so that nymphs would come out of their natural environments to watch her work. Arachne boasted that her skills could beat those of Minerva, and if she were wrong she would pay the price for it. This angered Minerva, and she took the form of an old woman to approach Arachne, offering her a chance to take back her challenge and ask forgiveness. When Arachne refused, Minerva rid herself of her disguise and took Arachne up on her challenge. Arcachne began to weave a tapestry which showed the shortcomings of the gods, while Minerva depicted her competition with Neptune and the gods looking down with disgust on mortals who would dare to challenge them. Minerva's weaving was meant as a final warning to her foe to back down. Minerva was insulted by the scenes which Arachne was weaving, and destroyed it. She then touched Arachne on the forehead which made her feel shame for what she had done, leading her to hang herself. Minerva then felt bad for the woman, and brought her back to life. However, Minerva transformed her into a spider as punishment for her actions, and hanging from a web would forever be a reminder to Arachne of her actions which offended the gods. This story also acted as a warning to mortals not to challenge the gods.
Medusa was once a beautiful human, her beauty rivaled that of Minerva. Because of this Minerva turned her into a monster, replacing her hair with hissing snakes and removing her charm. Medusa turned any living creature she looked upon into stone. When Perseus approached Medusa he used her reflection in his shield to avoid contact with her eyes, and then beheaded her. He delivered the severed head to Minerva, who placed its image on her Aegis.
When Perseus beheaded Medusa some of the blood spilled onto the ground, and from it came Pegasus. Minerva caught the horse and tamed it before gifting the horse to the Muses. It was a kick from the hoof of Pegasus which opened the fountain Hippocrene. When Bellerophon later went to fight the Chimera (mythology) he sought to use Pegasus in the fight. In order to do this he slept in Minerva's temple, and she came to him with a golden bridle. When Pegasus saw Bellerophon with the bridle the horse immediately allowed Bellerophon to mount, and they defeated the Chimera.
Metamorphoses by Ovid tell the story of Minerva and Aglauros. When Mercury comes to seduce mortal virgin Herse, her sister Aglauros is driven by her greed to help him. Minerva discovers this and is furious with Aglauros. She seeks the assistance of Envy, who fills Aglauros with so much envy for the good fortune of others that she turns to stone. Mercury fails to seduce Herse.
Minerva assisted the hero Hercules. In Hyginus' "Fabulae" she is said to have helped him kill the Hydra (30.3).
Minerva assisted the hero Odysseus. Hyginus describes in his work "Fabulae" that Minerva changes Odysseus' appearance in order to protect and assist him multiple times (126).
Minerva is thought to have invented the flute by piercing holes into boxwood. She enjoyed the music, but became embarrassed by how it made her face look when her cheeks puffed out to play. Because of this she threw it away and it landed on a riverbank where it was found by a satyr.
Minerva was worshipped at several locations in Rome, most prominently as part of the Capitoline Triad. She was also worshipped at the Temple of Minerva Medica, and at the "Delubrum Minervae", a temple founded around 50 BC by Pompey on the site now occupied by the church of "Santa Maria sopra Minerva".
The Romans celebrated her festival from March 19 to March 23 during the day which is called, in the neuter plural, Quinquatria, the fifth day after the Ides of March, the nineteenth, an artisans' holiday. This festival was of deepest importance to artists and craftsmen as she was the patron goddess of crafting and arts. According to Ovid (Fasti 3.809) the festival was 5 days long, and the first day was said to be the anniversary of Minerva's birth, so no blood was to be shed. The following four days were full of games of "drawn swords" in honour of Minerva's military association. Suetonius tells us (Life of Domitian 4.4) that Domitian celebrated the Quinquatria by appointing a college of priests who were to stage plays and animal games in addition to poetry and oratory competitions. A lesser version, the "Minusculae Quinquatria", was held on the Ides of June, June 13, by the flute-players, as Minerva was thought to have invented the flute. In 207 BC, a guild of poets and actors was formed to meet and make votive offerings at the temple of Minerva on the Aventine Hill. Among others, its members included Livius Andronicus. The Aventine sanctuary of Minerva continued to be an important center of the arts for much of the middle Roman Republic.
As "Minerva Medica", she was the goddess of medicine and physicians. As "Minerva Achaea", she was worshipped at Lucera in Apulia where votive gifts and arms said to be those of Diomedes were preserved in her temple.
We know due to the Acta Arvalia that a cow was sacrificed to Minerva on October 13th 58 AD along with many other scrifices to celebrate the anniversary of Nero coming to power. On January 3rd 81 AD, as a part of the New Year vows, two cows were sacrificed to Minerva (among many others) to secure the well-being of the emperor Titus, Domitian Caesar, Julia Augusta, and their children. On January 3rd 87 AD there is again record of a cow being sacrificed to Minerva among the many sacrifices made as a part of the New Year vows.
In "Fasti" III, Ovid called her the "goddess of a thousand works" due to all of the things she was associated with. Minerva was worshipped throughout Italy, and when she eventually became equated with the Greek goddess Athena, she also became a goddess of battle. Unlike Mars, god of war, she was sometimes portrayed with sword lowered, in sympathy for the recent dead, rather than raised in triumph and battle lust. In Rome her bellicose nature was emphasized less than elsewhere.
According to Livy's "History of Rome" (7.3), the annual nail marking the year, a process where the praetor maximus drove a nail into to formally keep track of the current year, happened in the temple of Minerva because she was thought to have invented numbers.
There is archaeological evidence to suggest that Minerva was worshipped not only in a formal civic fashion, but also by individuals on a more personal level.
Minerva is featured on the coinage of different Roman emperors. She often is represented on the reverse side of a coin holding an owl and a spear among her attributes.
During the Roman occupation of Britain, it was common for carpenters to own tools ornamented with images of Minerva to invoke a greater amount of protection from the goddess of crafts. Some women would also have images of her on accessories such as hairpins or jewellery. She was even featured on some funerary art on coffins and signet rings.
During Roman rule Minerva became equated with the Celtic goddess Sulis, to the degree where their names were used both together and interchangeably. and was believed to preside over the healing hot springs located in Bath. Though Minerva is not a water deity, her association with intellectual professions as "Minerva Medica" she could also be thought of as a healing goddess, the epigraphic evidence present makes it clear that this is how Minerva was thought of in Bath.
Some of the archaeological evidence present in Bath leads scholars to believe that it was thought Minerva could provide full healing from things such as rheumatism via the hot springs if she was given full credit for the healing.
The temple of Sulis Minerva was known for having a miraculous altar-fire which burned coal as opposed to the traditional wood.
There is evidence of worship of Minerva Medica in Carrawburgh due to archaeological evidence such as a relief depicting her and Aesculapius.
Stemming from an Italic moon goddess "*Meneswā" ('She who measures'), the Etruscans adopted the inherited Old Latin name, "*Menerwā", thereby calling her Menrva. It is presumed that her Roman name, Minerva, is based on this Etruscan mythology. Minerva was the goddess of wisdom, war, art, schools, and commerce. She was the Etruscan counterpart to Greek Athena. Like Athena, Minerva burst from the head of her father, Jupiter (Greek Zeus), who had devoured her mother (Metis) in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent her birth.
By a process of folk etymology, the Romans could have linked her foreign name to the root "men-" in Latin words such as "mens" meaning "mind", perhaps because one of her aspects as goddess pertained to the intellectual. The word "mens" is built from the Proto-Indo-European root "*men-" 'mind' (linked with memory as in Greek Mnemosyne/μνημοσύνη and "mnestis"/μνῆστις: memory, remembrance, recollection, "manush" in Sanskrit meaning mind).
The Etruscan Menrva was part of a holy triad with Tinia and Uni, equivalent to the Roman Capitoline Triad of Jupiter-Juno-Minerva.
As a patron goddess of wisdom, Minerva frequently features in statuary, as an image on seals, and in other forms at educational institutions. Listings of this can be found on Minerva in the emblems of educational establishments.
She is remembered in "De Mulieribus Claris", a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by the Florentine author Giovanni Boccaccio, composed in 136162. It is notable as the first collection devoted exclusively to biographies of women in Western literature.. Poet Elizabeth Carter is famously portrayed in an outfit inspired by Minerva, and also wrote poems in her honour.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19845
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Mars Direct
Mars Direct is a proposal for a human mission to Mars which purports to be both cost-effective and possible with current technology. It was originally detailed in a research paper by Martin Marietta engineers Robert Zubrin and David Baker in 1990, and later expanded upon in Zubrin's 1996 book "The Case for Mars". It now serves as a staple of Zubrin's speaking engagements and general advocacy as head of the Mars Society, an organization devoted to the colonization of Mars.
On July 20, 1989, George H. W. Bush – then President of the United States – announced plans for what came to be known as the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI). In a speech on the steps of the National Air and Space Museum he described long-term plans which would culminate in a manned mission to the surface of Mars.
By December 1990, a study to estimate the project's cost determined that long-term expenditure would total approximately 450 billion dollars spread over 20 to 30 years. The "90 Day Study" as it came to be known, evoked a hostile Congressional reaction towards SEI given that it would have required the largest single government expenditure since World War II. Within a year, all funding requests for SEI had been denied.
Dan Goldin became NASA Administrator on April 1, 1992, officially abandoning plans for near-term human exploration beyond Earth orbit with the shift towards a "faster, better, cheaper" strategy for robotic exploration.
While working at Martin Marietta designing interplanetary mission architectures, Robert Zubrin perceived a fundamental flaw in the SEI program. Zubrin came to understand that if NASA's plan was to fully utilize as many technologies as possible in support of sending the mission to Mars, it would become politically untenable. In his own words:
The exact opposite of the correct way to do engineering.
Zubrin's alternative to this "Battlestar Galactica" mission strategy (dubbed so by its detractors for the large, nuclear powered spaceships that supposedly resembled the science-fiction spaceship of the same name) involved a longer surface stay, a faster flight-path in the form of a conjunction class mission, in situ resource utilization and craft launched directly from the surface of Earth to Mars as opposed to be being assembled in orbit or by a space-based drydock. After receiving approval from management at Marietta, a 12-man team within the company began to work out the details of the mission. While they focused primarily on more traditional mission architectures, Zubrin began to collaborate with colleague David Baker's extremely simple, stripped-down and robust strategy. Their goal to "use local resources, travel light, and live off the land" became the hallmark of Mars Direct.
The first flight of the Ares rocket (not to be confused with the similarly named rocket of the now defunct Constellation program) would take an unmanned Earth Return Vehicle to Mars after a 6-month cruise phase, with a supply of hydrogen, a chemical plant and a small nuclear reactor. Once there, a series of chemical reactions (the Sabatier reaction coupled with electrolysis) would be used to combine a small amount of hydrogen (8 tons) carried by the "Earth Return Vehicle" with the carbon dioxide of the Martian atmosphere to create up to 112 tonnes of methane and oxygen. This relatively simple chemical-engineering procedure was used regularly in the 19th and 20th centuries, and would ensure that only 7% of the return propellant would need to be carried to the surface of Mars.
96 tonnes of methane and oxygen would be needed to send the "Earth Return Vehicle" on a trajectory back home at the conclusion of the surface stay; the rest would be available for Mars rovers. The process of generating fuel is expected to require approximately ten months to complete.
Some 26 months after the "Earth Return Vehicle" is originally launched from Earth, a second vehicle, the Mars Habitat Unit, would be launched on a 6-month long low-energy transfer trajectory to Mars, and would carry a crew of four astronauts (the minimum number required so that the team can be split in two without leaving anyone alone). The Habitat Unit would not be launched until the automated factory aboard the ERV had signaled the successful production of chemicals required for operation on the planet and the return trip to Earth. During the trip, artificial gravity would be generated by tethering the Habitat Unit to the spent upper stage of the booster, and setting them rotating about a common axis. This rotation would produce a comfortable 1 "g" working environment for the astronauts, freeing them of the debilitating effects of long-term exposure to weightlessness.
Upon reaching Mars, the upper stage would be jettisoned, with the Habitat Unit aerobraking into Mars orbit before soft-landing in proximity to the "Earth Return Vehicle". Precise landing would be supported by a radar beacon started by the first lander. Once on Mars, the crew would spend 18 months on the surface, carrying out a range of scientific research, aided by a small rover vehicle carried aboard their Mars Habitat Unit, and powered by the methane produced by the Earth Return Vehicle.
To return, the crew would use the "Earth Return Vehicle", leaving the Mars Habitat Unit for the possible use of subsequent explorers. On the return trip to Earth, the propulsion stage of the Earth Return Vehicle would be used as a counterweight to generate artificial gravity for the trip back.
Follow-up missions would be dispatched at 2 year intervals to Mars to ensure that a redundant ERV would be on the surface at all times, waiting to be used by the next crewed mission or the current crew in an emergency. In such an emergency scenario, the crew would trek hundreds of kilometers to the other ERV in their long-range vehicle.
The Mars Direct proposal includes a component for a Launch Vehicle "Ares", an Earth Return Vehicle (ERV) and a Mars Habitat Unit (MHU).
The plan involves several launches making use of heavy-lift boosters of similar size to the Saturn V used for the Apollo missions, which would potentially be derived from Space Shuttle components. This proposed rocket is dubbed "Ares", which would use space shuttle Advanced Solid Rocket Boosters, a modified shuttle external tank, and a new Lox/LH2 third stage for the trans-Mars injection of the payload. Ares would put 121 tonnes into a 300 km circular orbit, and boost 47 tonnes toward Mars.
The Earth Return Vehicle is a two-stage vehicle. The upper stage comprises the living accommodation for the crew during their six-month return trip to Earth from Mars. The lower stage contains the vehicle's rocket engines and a small chemical production plant.
The Mars Habitat Unit is a 2- or 3-deck vehicle providing a comprehensive living and working environment for a Mars crew. In addition to individual sleeping quarters which provide a degree of privacy for each of the crew and a place for personal effects, the Mars Habitat Unit includes a communal living area, a small galley, exercise area, and hygiene facilities with closed-cycle water purification. The lower deck of the Mars Habitat Unit provides the primary working space for the crew: small laboratory areas for carrying out geology and life science research; storage space for samples, airlocks for reaching the surface of Mars, and a suiting-up area where crew members prepare for surface operations. Protection from harmful radiation while in space and on the surface of Mars (e.g. from solar flares) would be provided by a dedicated "storm shelter" in the core of the vehicle.
The Mars Habitat Unit would also include a small pressurized rover that is stored in the lower deck area and assembled on the surface of Mars. Powered by a methane engine, it is designed to extend the range over which astronauts can explore the surface of Mars out to 320 km.
Since it was first proposed as a part of Mars Direct, the Mars Habitat Unit has been adopted by NASA as a part of their Mars Design Reference Mission, which uses two Mars Habitat Units – one of which flies to Mars unmanned, providing a dedicated laboratory facility on Mars, together with the capacity to carry a larger rover vehicle. The second Mars Habitat Unit flies to Mars with the crew, its interior given over completely to living and storage space.
To prove the viability of the Mars Habitat Unit, the Mars Society has implemented the Mars Analogue Research Station Program (MARS), which has established a number of prototype Mars Habitat Units around the world.
Baker pitched Mars Direct at the Marshall Spaceflight Center in April 1990, where reception was very positive. The engineers flew around the country to present their plan, which generated significant interest. When their tour culminated in a demonstration at the National Space Society they received a standing ovation. The plan gained rapid media attention shortly afterwards.
Resistance to the plan came from teams within NASA working on the Space Station and advanced propulsion concepts. The NASA administration rejected Mars Direct. Zubrin remained committed to the strategy, and after parting with David Baker attempted to convince the new NASA administration of Mars Direct's merits in 1992.
After being granted a small research fund at Martin Marietta, Zubrin and his colleagues successfully demonstrated an in-situ propellant generator which achieved an efficiency of 94%. No chemical engineers partook in the development of the demonstration hardware. After showing the positive results to the Johnson Space Center, the NASA administration still held several reservations about the plan.
In November 2003, Zubrin was invited to speak to the U.S. Senate committee on the future of space exploration. Two months later the Bush administration announced the creation of the Constellation program, a manned spaceflight initiative with the goal of sending humans to the Moon by 2020. While a Mars mission was not specifically detailed, a plan to reach Mars based on utilizing the Orion spacecraft was tentatively developed for implementation in the 2030s. In 2009 the Obama administration began a review of the Constellation program, and after budgetary concerns the program was cancelled in 2010.
There are a variety of psychological and sociological issues that could affect long-duration expeditionary space missions. Early human spaceflight missions to Mars are expected by some to have significant psycho-social problems to overcome, as well as provide considerable data for refining mission design, mission planning, and crew selection for future missions.
Since Mars Direct was initially conceived, it has undergone regular review and development by Zubrin himself, the Mars Society, NASA, Stanford University and others.
Zubrin and Weaver developed a modified version of Mars Direct, called Mars Semi-Direct, in response to some specific criticisms. This mission consists of three spacecraft and includes a "Mars Ascent Vehicle" (MAV). The ERV remains in Mars orbit for the return journey, while the unmanned MAV lands and manufactures propellants for the ascent back up to Mars orbit. The Mars Semi-Direct architecture has been used as the basis of a number of studies, including the NASA Design Reference Missions.
When subjected to the same cost-analysis as the 90-day report, Mars Semi-Direct was predicted to cost 55 billion dollars over 10 years, capable of fitting into the existing NASA budget.
Mars Semi-Direct became the basis of the Design Reference Mission 1.0 of NASA, replacing the Space Exploration Initiative.
The NASA model, referred to as the Design Reference Mission, on version 5.0 as of September 1, 2012, calls for a significant upgrade in hardware (at least three launches per mission, rather than two), and sends the ERV to Mars fully fueled, parking it in orbit above the planet for subsequent rendezvous with the MAV.
With the potentially imminent advent of low-cost heavy lift capability, Zubrin has posited a dramatically lower cost manned Mars mission using hardware developed by space transport company SpaceX. In this simpler plan, a crew of two would be sent to Mars by a single Falcon Heavy launch, the Dragon spacecraft acting as their interplanetary cruise habitat. Additional living space for the journey would be enabled through the use of inflatable add-on modules if required. The problems associated with long-term weightlessness would be addressed in the same manner as the baseline Mars Direct plan, a tether between the Dragon habitat and the TMI (Trans-Mars Injection) stage acting to allow rotation of the craft.
The Dragon's heatshield characteristics could allow for a safe descent if landing rockets of sufficient power were made available. Research at NASA's Ames Research Center has demonstrated that a robotic Dragon would be capable of a fully propulsive landing on the Martian surface. On the surface, the crew would have at their disposal two Dragon spacecraft with inflatable modules as habitats, two ERVs, two Mars ascent vehicles and 8 tonnes of cargo.
The Mars Society and Stanford studies retain the original two-vehicle mission profile of Mars Direct, but increase the crew size to six.
Mars Society Australia developed their own four-person "Mars Oz" reference mission, based on Mars Semi-Direct. This study uses horizontally landing, bent biconic shaped modules, and relies on solar power and chemical propulsion throughout, where Mars Direct and the DRMs used nuclear reactors for surface power and, in the case of the DRMs for propulsion as well. The Mars Oz reference mission also differs in assuming, based on space station experience, that spin gravity will not be required.
The Mars Society has argued the viability of the Mars Habitat Unit concept through their Mars Analogue Research Station program. These are two or three decked vertical cylinders ~8 m in diameter and 8 m high. Mars Society Australia plans to build its own station based on the Mars Oz design. The Mars Oz design features a horizontal cylinder 4.7 m in diameter and 18 m long, with a tapered nose. A second similar module will function as a garage and power and logistics module.
Mars Direct was featured on a Discovery Channel programs "Mars: The Next Frontier" in which issues were discussed surrounding NASA funding of the project, and on "Mars Underground", where the plan is discussed more in-depth.
"Mars to Stay" proposals involve not returning the first immigrant/explorers immediately, or ever. It has been suggested the cost of sending a four or six person team could be one fifth to one tenth the cost of returning that same four or six person team. Depending on the precise approach taken, a quite complete lab could be sent and landed for less than the cost of sending back even 50 kilos of Martian rocks. Twenty or more persons could be sent for the cost of returning four.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19846
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Max Planck
Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck, ForMemRS (; ; 23 April 1858 – 4 October 1947) was a German theoretical physicist whose discovery of energy quanta won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918.
Planck made many contributions to theoretical physics, but his fame as a physicist rests primarily on his role as the originator of quantum theory, which revolutionized human understanding of atomic and subatomic processes. In 1948 the German scientific institution Kaiser Wilhelm Society (of which Planck was twice president) was renamed Max Planck Society (MPS). The MPS now includes 83 institutions representing a wide range of scientific directions.
Planck came from a traditional, intellectual family. His paternal great-grandfather and grandfather were both theology professors in Göttingen; his father was a law professor at the University of Kiel and Munich. One of his uncles was also a judge.
Planck was born in 1858 in Kiel, Holstein, to Johann Julius Wilhelm Planck and his second wife, Emma Patzig. He was baptized with the name of "Karl Ernst Ludwig Marx Planck"; of his given names, "Marx" (a now obsolete variant of "Markus" or maybe simply an error for "Max", which is actually short for "Maximilian") was indicated as the "appellation name". However, by the age of ten he signed with the name "Max" and used this for the rest of his life.
He was the 6th child in the family, though two of his siblings were from his father's first marriage. War was common during Planck's early years and among his earliest memories was the marching of Prussian and Austrian troops into Kiel during the Second Schleswig War in 1864. In 1867 the family moved to Munich, and Planck enrolled in the Maximilians gymnasium school, where he came under the tutelage of Hermann Müller, a mathematician who took an interest in the youth, and taught him astronomy and mechanics as well as mathematics. It was from Müller that Planck first learned the principle of conservation of energy. Planck graduated early, at age 17. This is how Planck first came in contact with the field of physics.
Planck was gifted when it came to music. He took singing lessons and played piano, organ and cello, and composed songs and operas. However, instead of music he chose to study physics.
The Munich physics professor Philipp von Jolly advised Planck against going into physics, saying, "In this field, almost everything is already discovered, and all that remains is to fill a few holes." Planck replied that he did not wish to discover new things, but only to understand the known fundamentals of the field, and so began his studies in 1874 at the University of Munich. Under Jolly's supervision, Planck performed the only experiments of his scientific career, studying the diffusion of hydrogen through heated platinum, but transferred to theoretical physics.
In 1877 he went to the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin for a year of study with physicists Hermann von Helmholtz and Gustav Kirchhoff and mathematician Karl Weierstrass. He wrote that Helmholtz was never quite prepared, spoke slowly, miscalculated endlessly, and bored his listeners, while Kirchhoff spoke in carefully prepared lectures which were dry and monotonous. He soon became close friends with Helmholtz. While there he undertook a program of mostly self-study of Clausius's writings, which led him to choose thermodynamics as his field.
In October 1878 Planck passed his qualifying exams and in February 1879 defended his dissertation, "Über den zweiten Hauptsatz der mechanischen Wärmetheorie" ("On the second law of thermodynamics"). He briefly taught mathematics and physics at his former school in Munich.
By the year 1880, Planck had obtained the two highest academic degrees offered in Europe. The first was a doctorate degree after he completed his paper detailing his research and theory of thermodynamics. He then presented his thesis called "Gleichgewichtszustände isotroper Körper in verschiedenen Temperaturen" ("Equilibrium states of isotropic bodies at different temperatures"), which earned him a habilitation.
With the completion of his habilitation thesis, Planck became an unpaid Privatdozent (German academic rank comparable to lecturer/assistant professor) in Munich, waiting until he was offered an academic position. Although he was initially ignored by the academic community, he furthered his work on the field of heat theory and discovered one after another the same thermodynamical formalism as Gibbs without realizing it. Clausius's ideas on entropy occupied a central role in his work.
In April 1885 the University of Kiel appointed Planck as associate professor of theoretical physics. Further work on entropy and its treatment, especially as applied in physical chemistry, followed. He published his "Treatise on Thermodynamics" in 1897. He proposed a thermodynamic basis for Svante Arrhenius's theory of electrolytic dissociation.
In 1889 he was named the successor to Kirchhoff's position at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Berlin – presumably thanks to Helmholtz's intercession – and by 1892 became a full professor. In 1907 Planck was offered Boltzmann's position in Vienna, but turned it down to stay in Berlin. During 1909, as a University of Berlin professor, he was invited to become the Ernest Kempton Adams Lecturer in Theoretical Physics at Columbia University in New York City. A series of his lectures were translated and co-published by Columbia University professor A. P. Wills. He retired from Berlin on 10 January 1926, and was succeeded by Erwin Schrödinger.
In March 1887 Planck married Marie Merck (1861–1909), sister of a school fellow, and moved with her into a sublet apartment in Kiel. They had four children: Karl (1888–1916), the twins Emma (1889–1919) and Grete (1889–1917), and Erwin (1893–1945).
After the apartment in Berlin, the Planck family lived in a villa in Berlin-Grunewald, Wangenheimstrasse 21. Several other professors from University of Berlin lived nearby, among them theologian Adolf von Harnack, who became a close friend of Planck. Soon the Planck home became a social and cultural center. Numerous well-known scientists, such as Albert Einstein, Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner were frequent visitors. The tradition of jointly performing music had already been established in the home of Helmholtz.
After several happy years, in July 1909 Marie Planck died, possibly from tuberculosis. In March 1911 Planck married his second wife, Marga von Hoesslin (1882–1948); in December his fifth child Hermann was born.
During the First World War Planck's second son Erwin was taken prisoner by the French in 1914, while his oldest son Karl was killed in action at Verdun. Grete died in 1917 while giving birth to her first child. Her sister died the same way two years later, after having married Grete's widower. Both granddaughters survived and were named after their mothers. Planck endured these losses stoically.
In January 1945 Erwin, to whom he had been particularly close, was sentenced to death by the Nazi Volksgerichtshof because of his participation in the failed attempt to assassinate Hitler in July 1944. Erwin was executed on 23 January 1945.
As a professor at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Berlin, Planck joined the local Physical Society. He later wrote about this time: "In those days I was essentially the only theoretical physicist there, whence things were not so easy for me, because I started mentioning entropy, but this was not quite fashionable, since it was regarded as a mathematical spook". Thanks to his initiative, the various local Physical Societies of Germany merged in 1898 to form the German Physical Society (Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft, DPG); from 1905 to 1909 Planck was the president.
Planck started a six-semester course of lectures on theoretical physics, "dry, somewhat impersonal" according to Lise Meitner, "using no notes, never making mistakes, never faltering; the best lecturer I ever heard" according to an English participant, James R. Partington, who continues: "There were always many standing around the room. As the lecture-room was well heated and rather close, some of the listeners would from time to time drop to the floor, but this did not disturb the lecture." Planck did not establish an actual "school"; the number of his graduate students was only about 20, among them:
In 1894 Planck turned his attention to the problem of black-body radiation. The problem had been stated by Kirchhoff in 1859: "how does the intensity of the electromagnetic radiation emitted by a black body (a perfect absorber, also known as a cavity radiator) depend on the frequency of the radiation (i.e., the color of the light) and the temperature of the body?". The question had been explored experimentally, but no theoretical treatment agreed with experimental values. Wilhelm Wien proposed Wien's law, which correctly predicted the behaviour at high frequencies, but failed at low frequencies. The Rayleigh–Jeans law, another approach to the problem, agreed with experimental results at low frequencies, but created what was later known as the "ultraviolet catastrophe" at high frequencies. However, contrary to many textbooks this was not a motivation for Planck.
Planck's first proposed solution to the problem in 1899 followed from what Planck called the "principle of elementary disorder", which allowed him to derive Wien's law from a number of assumptions about the entropy of an ideal oscillator, creating what was referred-to as the Wien–Planck law. Soon it was found that experimental evidence did not confirm the new law at all, to Planck's frustration. Planck revised his approach, deriving the first version of the famous Planck black-body radiation law, which described the experimentally observed black-body spectrum well. It was first proposed in a meeting of the DPG on 19 October 1900 and published in 1901. This first derivation did not include energy quantisation, and did not use statistical mechanics, to which he held an aversion. In November 1900 Planck revised this first approach, relying on Boltzmann's statistical interpretation of the second law of thermodynamics as a way of gaining a more fundamental understanding of the principles behind his radiation law. As Planck was deeply suspicious of the philosophical and physical implications of such an interpretation of Boltzmann's approach, his recourse to them was, as he later put it, "an act of despair ... I was ready to sacrifice any of my previous convictions about physics".
The central assumption behind his new derivation, presented to the DPG on 14 December 1900, was the supposition, now known as the Planck postulate, that electromagnetic energy could be emitted only in quantized form, in other words, the energy could only be a multiple of an elementary unit:
where is Planck's constant, also known as Planck's action quantum (introduced already in 1899), and is the frequency of the radiation. Note that the elementary units of energy discussed here are represented by and not simply by . Physicists now call these quanta photons, and a photon of frequency will have its own specific and unique energy. The total energy at that frequency is then equal to multiplied by the number of photons at that frequency.
At first Planck considered that quantisation was only "a purely formal assumption ... actually I did not think much about it ..."; nowadays this assumption, incompatible with classical physics, is regarded as the birth of quantum physics and the greatest intellectual accomplishment of Planck's career (Ludwig Boltzmann had been discussing in a theoretical paper in 1877 the possibility that the energy states of a physical system could be discrete). The discovery of Planck's constant enabled him to define a new universal set of physical units (such as the Planck length and the Planck mass), all based on fundamental physical constants upon which much of quantum theory is based. In recognition of Planck's fundamental contribution to a new branch of physics, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1918 (he actually received the award in 1919).
Subsequently, Planck tried to grasp the meaning of energy quanta, but to no avail. "My unavailing attempts to somehow reintegrate the action quantum into classical theory extended over several years and caused me much trouble." Even several years later, other physicists like Rayleigh, Jeans, and Lorentz set Planck's constant to zero in order to align with classical physics, but Planck knew well that this constant had a precise nonzero value. "I am unable to understand Jeans' stubbornness – he is an example of a theoretician as should never be existing, the same as Hegel was for philosophy. So much the worse for the facts if they don't fit."
Max Born wrote about Planck: "He was, by nature, a conservative mind; he had nothing of the revolutionary and was thoroughly skeptical about speculations. Yet his belief in the compelling force of logical reasoning from facts was so strong that he did not flinch from announcing the most revolutionary idea which ever has shaken physics."
In 1905 the three epochal papers by Albert Einstein were published in the journal "Annalen der Physik". Planck was among the few who immediately recognized the significance of the special theory of relativity. Thanks to his influence, this theory was soon widely accepted in Germany. Planck also contributed considerably to extend the special theory of relativity. For example, he recast the theory in terms of classical action.
Einstein's hypothesis of light "quanta" (photons), based on Heinrich Hertz's 1887 discovery (and further investigation by Philipp Lenard) of the photoelectric effect, was initially rejected by Planck. He was unwilling to discard completely Maxwell's theory of electrodynamics. "The theory of light would be thrown back not by decades, but by centuries, into the age when Christiaan Huygens dared to fight against the mighty emission theory of Isaac Newton ..."
In 1910 Einstein pointed out the anomalous behavior of specific heat at low temperatures as another example of a phenomenon which defies explanation by classical physics. Planck and Nernst, seeking to clarify the increasing number of contradictions, organized the First Solvay Conference (Brussels 1911). At this meeting Einstein was able to convince Planck.
Meanwhile, Planck had been appointed dean of Berlin University, whereby it was possible for him to call Einstein to Berlin and establish a new professorship for him (1914). Soon the two scientists became close friends and met frequently to play music together.
At the onset of the First World War Planck endorsed the general excitement of the public, writing that, "Besides much that is horrible, there is also much that is unexpectedly great and beautiful: the smooth solution of the most difficult domestic political problems by the unification of all parties (and) ... the extolling of everything good and noble."
Nonetheless, Planck refrained from the extremes of nationalism. In 1915, at a time when Italy was about to join the Allied Powers, he voted successfully for a scientific paper from Italy, which received a prize from the Prussian Academy of Sciences, where Planck was one of four permanent presidents.
Planck also signed the infamous "Manifesto of the 93 intellectuals", a pamphlet of polemic war propaganda (while Einstein retained a strictly pacifistic attitude which almost led to his imprisonment, only being spared thanks to his Swiss citizenship).
In the turbulent post-war years, Planck, now the highest authority of German physics, issued the slogan "persevere and continue working" to his colleagues.
In October 1920 he and Fritz Haber established the "Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft" (Emergency Organization of German Science), aimed at providing financial support for scientific research. A considerable portion of the money the organization would distribute was raised abroad.
Planck also held leading positions at Berlin University, the Prussian Academy of Sciences, the German Physical Society and the Kaiser Wilhelm Society (which became the Max Planck Society in 1948). During this time economic conditions in Germany were such that he was hardly able to conduct research. In 1926, Planck became a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
During the interwar period, Planck became a member of the Deutsche Volks-Partei (German People's Party), the party of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Gustav Stresemann, which aspired to liberal aims for domestic policy and rather revisionistic aims for politics around the world.
Planck disagreed with the introduction of universal suffrage and later expressed the view that the Nazi dictatorship resulted from "the ascent of the rule of the crowds".
At the end of the 1920s Bohr, Heisenberg and Pauli had worked out the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, but it was rejected by Planck, and by Schrödinger, Laue, and Einstein as well. Planck expected that wave mechanics would soon render quantum theory—his own child—unnecessary. This was not to be the case, however. Further work only cemented quantum theory, even against his and Einstein's philosophical revulsions. Planck experienced the truth of his own earlier observation from his struggle with the older views in his younger years: "A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it."
When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Planck was 74. He witnessed many Jewish friends and colleagues expelled from their positions and humiliated, and hundreds of scientists emigrate from Nazi Germany. Again he tried to "persevere and continue working" and asked scientists who were considering emigration to remain in Germany. Nevertheless, he did help his nephew, the economist Hermann Kranold, to emigrate to London after his arrest. He hoped the crisis would abate soon and the political situation would improve.
Otto Hahn asked Planck to gather well-known German professors in order to issue a public proclamation against the treatment of Jewish professors, but Planck replied, "If you are able to gather today 30 such gentlemen, then tomorrow 150 others will come and speak against it, because they are eager to take over the positions of the others." Under Planck's leadership, the Kaiser Wilhelm Society (KWG) avoided open conflict with the Nazi regime, except concerning Fritz Haber. Planck tried to discuss the issue with Adolf Hitler but was unsuccessful. In the following year, 1934, Haber died in exile.
One year later, Planck, having been the president of the KWG since 1930, organized in a somewhat provocative style an official commemorative meeting for Haber. He also succeeded in secretly enabling a number of Jewish scientists to continue working in institutes of the KWG for several years. In 1936, his term as president of the KWG ended, and the Nazi government pressured him to refrain from seeking another term.
As the political climate in Germany gradually became more hostile, Johannes Stark, prominent exponent of Deutsche Physik ("German Physics", also called "Aryan Physics") attacked Planck, Sommerfeld and Heisenberg for continuing to teach the theories of Einstein, calling them "white Jews". The "Hauptamt Wissenschaft" (Nazi government office for science) started an investigation of Planck's ancestry, claiming that he was "1/16 Jewish", but Planck himself denied it.
In 1938 Planck celebrated his 80th birthday. The DPG held a celebration, during which the Max-Planck medal (founded as the highest medal by the DPG in 1928) was awarded to French physicist Louis de Broglie. At the end of 1938, the Prussian Academy lost its remaining independence and was taken over by Nazis ("Gleichschaltung"). Planck protested by resigning his presidency. He continued to travel frequently, giving numerous public talks, such as his talk on Religion and Science, and five years later he was sufficiently fit to climb 3,000-metre peaks in the Alps.
During the Second World War the increasing number of Allied bombing missions against Berlin forced Planck and his wife to temporarily leave the city and live in the countryside. In 1942 he wrote: "In me an ardent desire has grown to persevere this crisis and live long enough to be able to witness the turning point, the beginning of a new rise." In February 1944, his home in Berlin was completely destroyed by an air raid, annihilating all his scientific records and correspondence. His rural retreat was threatened by the rapid advance of the Allied armies from both sides.
In 1944 Planck's son Erwin was arrested by the Gestapo following the attempted assassination of Hitler in the 20 July plot. He was tried and sentenced to death by the People's Court in October 1944. Erwin was hanged at Berlin's Plötzensee Prison in January 1945. The death of his son destroyed much of Planck's will to live. After the end of the war Planck, his second wife, and his son by her were brought to a relative in Göttingen, where Planck died on 4 October 1947. His grave is situated in the old Stadtfriedhof (City Cemetery) in Göttingen.
Planck was a member of the Lutheran Church in Germany. He was very tolerant towards alternative views and religions.
In a lecture in 1937 entitled "Religion und Naturwissenschaft" (Religion and Natural Science) he suggested the importance of these symbols and rituals related directly with a believer's ability to worship God, but that one must be mindful that the symbols provide an imperfect illustration of divinity. He criticized atheism for being focused on the derision of such symbols, while at the same time warned of the over-estimation of the importance of such symbols by believers.
Planck was tolerant and favorable to all religions. Although he remained in the Lutheran Church, he did not promote Christian or Biblical views. He believed "the faith in miracles must yield, step by step, before the steady and firm advance of the facts of science, and its total defeat is undoubtedly a matter of time."
In his 1937 lecture "Religion and Naturwissenschaft", Planck expressed the view that God is everywhere present, and held that "the holiness of the unintelligible Godhead is conveyed by the holiness of symbols." Atheists, he thought, attach too much importance to what are merely symbols. He was a churchwarden from 1920 until his death, and believed in an almighty, all-knowing, beneficent God (though not necessarily a personal one). Both science and religion wage a "tireless battle against skepticism and dogmatism, against unbelief and superstition" with the goal "toward God!"
Planck said in 1944, "As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear headed science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about atoms this much: There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent spirit (orig. geist). This spirit is the matrix of all matter."
Planck regarded the scientist as a man of imagination and Christian faith. He said: "Both religion and science require a belief in God. For believers, God is in the beginning, and for physicists He is at the end of all considerations… To the former He is the foundation, to the latter, the crown of the edifice of every generalized world view".
On the other hand, Planck wrote, "...'to believe' means 'to recognize as a truth,' and the knowledge of nature, continually advancing on incontestably safe tracks, has made it utterly impossible for a person possessing some training in natural science to recognize as founded on truth the many reports of extraordinary occurrences contradicting the laws of nature, of miracles which are still commonly regarded as essential supports and confirmations of religious doctrines, and which formerly used to be accepted as facts pure and simple, without doubt or criticism. The belief in miracles must retreat step by step before relentlessly and reliably progressing science and we cannot doubt that sooner or later it must vanish completely."
Later in life, Planck's views on God were that of a deist. For example, six months before his death a rumour started that he had converted to Catholicism, but when questioned what had brought him to make this step, he declared that, although he had always been deeply religious, he did not believe "in a personal God, let alone a Christian God".
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19848
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Madhuri Dixit
Madhuri Dixit Nene (; born 15 May 1967) is an Indian actress, producer, and television personality. One of the most popular actresses of Hindi cinema, she has appeared in over 70 Bollywood films. The recipient of such accolades as six Filmfare Awards, she was one of the country's highest-paid actresses in the 1990s and early 2000s, and has featured seven times on "Forbes India" Celebrity 100 list. In 2008, the Government of India awarded her with Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian honour of the country.
Born and raised in Bombay, Dixit initially aspired to study microbiology, but discontinued her studies when she received offers for film roles and made her acting debut in 1984 with a leading role in the drama "Abodh". After a few commercially failed films, she had her breakthrough with the action romance "Tezaab" (1988) and established herself with starring roles in the top-grossing romantic dramas "Dil" (1990), "Beta" (1992), "Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!" (1994), and "Dil To Pagal Hai" (1997). She won four Best Actress awards at the Filmfare Awards for her performances in them. Her other commercially successful films during this period include "Ram Lakhan" (1989), "Tridev" (1989), "Thanedaar" (1990), "Kishen Kanhaiya" (1990), "Saajan" (1991), "Khalnayak" (1993), and "Raja" (1995).
Dixit also earned praise for her dramatic performances in the crime film "Parinda" (1989), the romantic dramas "Prem Pratigyaa" (1989) and "Devdas" (2002), receiving the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress for the latter, the thrillers "Anjaam" (1994) and "Pukar" (2000), and the social dramas "Mrityudand" (1997) and "Lajja" (2001). Following a sabbatical from acting in 2002, Dixit starred in the musical "Aaja Nachle" (2007), and worked intermittently in the next decade, gaining appreciation for her starring roles in the black comedy "Dedh Ishqiya" (2014) and the Marathi comedy drama "Bucket List" (2018). Her highest-grossing release came with the adventure comedy "Total Dhamaal" (2019).
In addition to acting in films, Dixit has been engaged in philanthropic activities. She has worked with UNICEF since 2014 to advocate the rights of children and prevent child labour, and is a prominent celebrity endorser for brands and products. She participates in concert tours and stage shows, features frequently as a talent judge for dance reality shows, has launched an online dance academy and is the co-founder of the production company RnM Moving Pictures. Dixit has been married to Shriram Nene since 1999, with whom she has two children.
Madhuri Dixit was born on 15 May 1967 into a Marathi Kokanastha Brahmin family in Bombay (present-day Mumbai) to Shankar and Snehlata Dixit. She has two elder sisters and an elder brother. She kindled an interest in dance at an early age of three, and went on to train in Kathak for eight years; later on becoming a professionally trained Kathak dancer.
Dixit received her education at Divine Child High School in Andheri. Apart from her studies, she participated in extra-curricular activities, such as dramatics. Aspiring to become a microbiologist, Dixit enrolled at the Sathaye college in Vile Parle (Mumbai) where she studied microbiology as one of her subjects in BSc. However, six months after she had commenced her course, Dixit decided to discontinue studies and pursue a full-time career in films.
Dixit made her cinema debut in 1984 with Rajshri Productions' drama "Abodh", opposite Bengali actor, Tapas Paul. Upon release, the film failed commercially but Dixit's performance earned her positive reviews from critics. Aakash Barvalia of Gomolo wrote, "Madhuri excels in her role as a young bride who acquits herself well as the naive village girl and does not realise what marriage actually entails."
Her only release of 1985 - "Awara Baap" – flopped at the box office. During this time, a monochrome photograph of hers, shot by Gautam Rajadhyaksha was featured on the cover of the then popular magazine "Debonair" and she appeared as the cover girl of Filmfare in April 1986.
Dixit's next four releases were the dramas "Swati" (1986), "Manav Hatya" (1986), "Hifazat" (1987) and "Uttar Dakshin" (1987). None of these films performed well either critically or commercially. Hifazat marked Dixit's first of several collaborations with Anil Kapoor. In 1988, Dixit had four film releases; three of them —"Mohre", "Khatron Ke Khiladi" and "Dayavan" —were commercial failures.
In 1988, Dixit finally attained recognition when she played Mohini, an impoverished and miserable woman, who is forced to dance to make money for her father in N. Chandra's action romance "Tezaab" opposite Anil Kapoor. It went on to become the highest-grossing film of the year and she received her first Filmfare Best Actress Award nomination; the film's success established Dixit as a leading actress of Hindi cinema, and marked a significant turning point in her career. Akshay Shah of Planet Bollywood wrote, "Madhuri Dixit also gives a fine tuned performance. Though she is more remembered for her crowd pleasing dance act Ek Do Teen, her acting needs to be noted, specially in the scenes where she is pitted against Anupam Kher."
Her first release of 1989, "Vardi", did fairly well at the box office. She next re-united with Anil Kapoor for Subhash Ghai's "Ram Lakhan". She played Radha Shastri, a girl who falls in love with her childhood friend, but finds it hard to convince her father. Finishing up as the second highest-grossing film of the year, "Ram Lakhan" emerged as a "super-hit" at the box office. Dixit's next release was the romantic drama "Prem Pratigyaa", in which she was paired opposite Mithun Chakraborty. Her portrayal of Laxmi Rao, a distraught woman who influences a local underworld don letting him give up his bad habits, earned her a second nomination for the Filmfare Best Actress Award. Dixit collaborated with Trimurti Films for the action thriller "Tridev" which featured an ensemble cast (Sunny Deol, Naseeruddin Shah, Jackie Shroff, Sangeeta Bijlani, Sonam and Amrish Puri). It finished up as one of the biggest hits and the third highest-grossing film of the year.
Her next release of the year, Vidhu Vinod Chopra's drama "Parinda", co-starring Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff and Nana Patekar was another box office hit. She played Paro, who is killed on her wedding night along with Karan (played by Kapoor) by a gangster (played by Patekar). A major critical success, the film was included in CNN-News18's 2013 list of the "100 greatest Indian films of all time". It was selected as the official Indian submission for the 1990 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film but was not nominated. "Rediff.com" opined that Dixit added "touching vulnerability and soft focus appeal to the heavy duty proceedings". Also that year, she starred in "Ilaaka", "Mujrim" (both opposite Mithun Chakrobarty), and "Paap Ka Ant" (opposite Govinda). "Kanoon Apna Apna" opposite Sanjay Dutt was an average grosser.
In 1990, Dixit appeared in nine films. Five of them—"Maha-Sangram", "Deewana Mujh Sa Nahin", "Jeevan Ek Sanghursh", "Sailaab" and "Jamai Raja"—were commercially unsuccessful. Her next release that year was Rakesh Roshan's action comedy "Kishen Kanhaiya" (alongside Anil Kapoor and Shilpa Shirodkar). It tells the story of twin brothers who are separated at birth and re-unite in their youth. Dixit and Shirodkar played the love interests of Kapoor's characters. It was the fourth-highest-grossing film of the year in India. Dixit next played a strong-willed woman in the box-office average action drama "Izzatdaar". She won her first Filmfare Best Actress Award for portraying Madhu, a rich and arrogant girl who falls in love with a poorer boy, in Indra Kumar's romantic drama "Dil" opposite Aamir Khan. It emerged as the highest-grossing film of the year. Rediff.com hailed her performance, commenting "..she showed her range as a performer. She breathed fire as the rebellious lover defying her family, or the forlorn estranged wife longing to be with her ailing better half." Dixit's final release of the year was the action drama "Thanedaar", opposite Dutt, which was another commercial hit.
In 1991, Dixit had five film releases, the first of which was the romance "Pyar Ka Devta". She next starred alongside Jackie Shroff in the psychological thriller "100 Days". She played Devi, a clairvoyant woman who has a vision of a murder and sets out to uncover the truth. The film was a moderately successful. She next starred in "Saajan" opposite Dutt and Salman Khan. A major critical and commercial success, the film earned Dixit praise for her portrayal of Pooja Saxena, who is in love with her idol - Sagar. She received her fourth Best Actress nomination at Filmfare for her work in the film. Tatineni Rama Rao's "Pratikar" and Nana Patekar's "" were her other releases.
Dixit's first release of 1992 was Kumar's drama "Beta", co-starring Anil Kapoor and Aruna Irani. Dixit's portrayal of Saraswati, an educated woman who rebels against her manipulative mother-in-law, earned her critical acclaim. Sukanya Verma mentioned that Dixit delivered "a powerhouse performance against an equally lethal looking Irani, even as Kapoor was overshadowed between the ladies." The film finished up as the biggest hit of the year and won her a second Filmfare Best Actress Award. Following the film's success, Dixit became famously known as the "Dhak Dhak Girl". "Zindagi Ek Jua", "Prem Deewane", "Khel" and "Sangeet" were her other releases of the year.
In 1993, her first release was Sudhir Mishra's "Dharavi" alongside Shabana Azmi, Om Puri and Anil Kapoor. The film was a joint NFDC-Doordarshan production and went on to win the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi. Her next release was Ramesh Talwar's "Sahibaan" which was commercially successful. Dixit next reunited with Sanjay Dutt and Jackie Shroff in Subhash Ghai's crime drama "Khalnayak". Her portrayal of Ganga, a police officer, who volunteers to go undercover, to trap an escaped criminal, garnered her critical acclaim. India Today wrote, "..she grinds and thrusts in her trademark dhak dhak style. The whistles grow deafening when she stares into the camera, looks at every man in the dark, and promises him her heart-and much more. In one Bangalore theatre, the police were kept on stand-by in case the crowds went berserk." Dixit's performance in "Khalnayak" earned her a sixth nomination for the Filmfare Best Actress Award and became the second highest-grossing film of the year in India. Singeetam Srinivasa Rao's "Phool" and Lawrence D'Souza's "Dil Tera Aashiq" were her other releases of the year.
In 1994, Dixit starred in Rahul Rawail's psychological thriller "Anjaam", which marked her first of many collaborations with Shah Rukh Khan. Dixit's portrayal of Shivani Chopra, a revenge-seeking wife and mother earned her a seventh nomination for the Filmfare Best Actress Award. The film performed moderately well at the box office. Her next release was Rajshri Productions' family drama "Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!" opposite Salman Khan. The film emerged as one of the biggest hits in the history of Hindi cinema and made 1.35 billion worldwide, breaking the record of the film "Sholay" (1975). It became the highest grossing Bollywood film in Hindi cinema history after its theatrical run and held the record for 7 years till the release of "" (2001). Dixit's portrayal of Nisha, who falls in love with Prem (Khan's character) but their plans to be together are put in jeopardy when Nisha's sister dies, fetched her a third Filmfare Best Actress Award and her first Screen Award for Best Actress. Critics believed the film to be "too sweet" but appreciated Dixit's performance. Tripat Narayanan of "New Straits Times" wrote "The Madhuri magic looms large throughout the film. As she emotes through dance, you simply cannot take your eyes off her." In a retrospect review, Rediff wrote, "Madhuri's Nisha was stunning, enthused, plucky and irresistible." Film critic K Hariharan noted, "She is seducing every person on screen, but does it in ways that are so graceful, there is a good balance between profanity and the sacred." The film won two National Award's, including the Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment and in the Millennium Edition of the "Guinness Book of World Records", "Hum Aapke Hain Kaun" became Bollywood's highest-grossing film.
Dixit achieved further success when she reunited with Indra Kumar for the romantic drama "Raja" opposite Sanjay Kapoor. She portrayed Madhu, a rich girl who falls for her childhood friend (played by Kapoor), however, she finds it tough to convince her two brothers of this relationship. It emerged as the third highest-grossing film of the year and its success was attributed to Dixit's immense popularity. She won a second Screen Award for Best Actress for her performance. Her next release was David Dhawan's "Yaraana" opposite Rishi Kapoor, in which she played Lalita, a dancer on the run from her abusive lover. The film underperformed at the box office. Both the films earned her nominations for the Filmfare Best Actress Award.
The following year, both her films "Prem Granth" and "Rajkumar" flopped at the box office. In 1997, Dixit received critical acclaim for her portrayal of Ketki Singh, a village woman who struggles to confront and defeat the forces of oppression and male domination in Prakash Jha's "Mrityudand" alongside Shabana Azmi and Shilpa Shirodkar. In a review for India Today, Anupama Chopra wrote, " Dixit gives her career's best performance. Simply dressed, she looks stunning and acts even better. She is by turns romantic, vulnerable, angry - the perfect foil to Azmi's long-suffering 'badi bahu'." "Screen" magazine deemed her portrayal "fiery" and appreciated the lack of glamour in the part. For her performance, Dixit won a third Screen Award for Best Actress. She next starred in the dramas "Koyla", "Mahaanta" and "Mohabbat". With the exception of Koyla, none of these films performed well either critically or commercially.
Dixit's fifth and final release of 1997 was Yash Chopra's musical romantic drama "Dil To Pagal Hai". Co-starring Shah Rukh Khan and Karisma Kapoor, the film depicts the love stories of the dancers in a musical dance troupe. Her role of Pooja, a woman faced with a moral dilemma in a love triangle fetched her a fourth Filmfare Best Actress Award and the Zee Cine Award for Best Actor – Female. "Dil To Pagal Hai" emerged as a 'blockbuster' and was the second highest-grossing film of the year in India. At the 45th National Film Awards, the film won three awards, including the Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment.
She next starred in the N.Chandra- directed drama "Wajood" (1998) opposite Nana Patekar and Mukul Dev. She played Apoorva, a very rich girl who is misunderstood by Malhar, played by Patekar. Suparn Verma of "Rediff" commented: "..She nevertheless shows that even a weak role cannot stifle her as she animates the screen like only she can. Truly, the coming together of Nana, Madhuri and Chandra in one film is a tour de force." Her next and only release of 1999 was the romance "Aarzoo" (1999) opposite Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan. Upon release, the film emerged commercially unsuccessful.
In 2000, Dixit starred in Rajkumar Santoshi's "Pukar" opposite Anil Kapoor. A love story based on the backdrop of the Indian Army, the film was shot over a course of 350 days. Dixit's portrayal of Anjali, a heartbroken and jealous woman who swears revenge on Jai (played by Kapoor) for rejecting her, garnered her several Best Actress nominations at various award ceremonies, including Filmfare and Screen. A review in "Filmfare" said that both "Anil Kapoor and Madhuri, veterans in their field, outdo themselves in the film". It won two National Film Awards, including the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration. She then played the title character in "Gaja Gamini", the first feature film directed by painter M. F. Husain. Hussain got fixated with Dixit, and watched her movie "Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!" several times, and was certain that he would make a film only with her. The film followed the story of Gaja Gamini, who appears in various incarnations as Mona Lisa, Shakuntala and others. "Pukar" was an average grosser, while the latter underperformed at the box office.
In 2001, Dixit starred in Deepak Shivdasani's love triangle "Yeh Raaste Hain Pyaar Ke" opposite Ajay Devgan and Preity Zinta. Upon release, the film met with largely negative reviews. Critic Gautam Buragohain, however, described her as "the saving grace of the film", adding that "she gives a delightful performance". Commercially too, the film failed to do well. Subsequently, Dixit reunited with Rajkumar Santoshi for the social drama "Lajja" (2001). Dealing with the issue of gender inequality, Dixit played Janki, a theatre actress who gets pre-maritally pregnant. Anita Bora of Rediff.com wrote: "Madhuri slips into her role as Janaki..with consummate ease..and..dazzles us with a class act." The film was a box-office failure in India but was an overseas success. Dixit's performance fetched her a Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination and won her the Zee Cine Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role – Female. Dixit's first release of 2002 was the love triangle "Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam" opposite Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan, where she played Radha whose married life blemishes when she gets obsessed with the career of her friend. A remake of director K. S. Adhiyaman's own Tamil film "Thotta Chinungi" (1995), the film took six years in making, with huge sabbaticals in between shoots due to several production problems. The film emerged moderately successful at the Indian box office. Few critics noted that the delay made the film look outdated.
Dixit's next release was Sanjay Leela Bhansali's period romance "Devdas", co-starring Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai. It was based on Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay's novel of the same name. She portrayed Chandramukhi, a courtesan who is in love with the title character. Sita Menon of Rediff.com wrote: "The most understated role and perhaps the one that is most lingering, in terms of virtuosity, is that played by Madhuri Dixit. As Chandramukhi, she is simply stunning, lending passion, fire and gentleness with such consummate ease that watching her perform is sheer delight." The film was screened at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and was featured by "Time" in their listing of the "10 best films of the millennium". The film emerged as a major commercial success with revenues of over . "Devdas" was chosen as India's official entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and received a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language. At the 50th National Film Awards, the film won five awards, including the Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment. Dixit eventually won the Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award and the Screen Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film.
The following year a film named after her, "Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon", was released in which a woman (played by Antara Mali) aspires to become the new Madhuri Dixit by trying her luck in Bollywood. Dixit also made an appearance on television as a host for the reality show "Kahin Na Kahin Koi Hai" on Sony TV.
Dixit made her comeback as an actress after five years with a leading role in cinematographer Anil Mehta's dance film "Aaja Nachle" (2007). She played Dia, a choreographer who returns to her town to save the endangered theatre where she learnt to dance. A box office failure, the film generated positive reviews for Dixit's portrayal. Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN criticised the plot, while he wrote about Dixit's performance: "It's hard to take your eyes off the screen when she's up there, dazzling you with her spontaneity, her easy charm and her 100-watt smile." Her performance earned her another nomination for the Filmfare Best Actress Award.
In 2011, Dixit was felicitated by Filmfare with a special jury recognition for completing 25 years in the Indian film industry.
Dixit relocated to India in 2011, and after another seven-year absence from the screen, starred in the black comedy "Dedh Ishqiya" in 2014. The film was a sequel to the 2010 film "Ishqiya". She played a con-woman "Begum Para" opposite Naseeruddin Shah, Arshad Warsi and Huma Qureshi and expressed that she agreed to do the film because of the "unapologetic way" director Abhishek Chaubey presented Vidya Balan's character in "Ishqiya". The film opened to positive response from critics who called it "one of the year's most important releases". Anupama Chopra called Dixit "compelling", while Deepanjana Pal of Firstpost wrote "She's still capable of keeping an audience glued to their seats when the credits start rolling, all because she's dancing on screen.". The film earned Dixit her fourteenth nomination for Filmfare Best Actress Award. Dedh Ishqiya earned little at the box-office.
Her next release of the year was debutant director Soumik Sen's "Gulaab Gang", alongside Juhi Chawla. Dixit portrayed Rajjo, the leader of a women's activist group. The film and her role was inspired by the real vigilante activist Sampat Pal Devi and her group Gulabi Gang. Pal filed a case against the film claiming that the makers did not take permission to make a film on her life, but the court later lifted the stay from the film. To prepare for her role, Dixit practised Shaolin Kung fu, stick training, and close combat. "Gulaab Gang" failed at the box office, earning mixed reviews. Subhash K. Jha labelled Dixit's performance and demeanour "inconsistent". However, Sampat Pal claimed that in Dixit's character she finds a "reflection of her own life so stark" that it makes her feel "it was she on screen". The film was a box-office failure.
In 2018, Dixit made her debut in Marathi Cinema with the comedy-drama "Bucket List". She played Madhura Sane, a middle aged housewife who takes the initiative to complete the bucket list of her deceased teenage heart donor. Dixit garnered critical acclaim for her portrayal; Mihir Bhanage of The Times of India
wrote "Madhuri owns the film and sails through it with flying colours." Kunal Guha of Mumbai Mirror said, "Madhuri Dixit long-overdue debut in Marathi cinema is a comfort watch even if a tad predictable and sappy."
Dixit reunited with Anil Kapoor and Ajay Devgn in Indra Kumar's adventure comedy "Total Dhamaal" (2019). She portrayed Bindu Patel, who along with a group of people learns about a hidden treasure and then races to claim it. The film received mixed to negative reviews, however, Dixit's performance received a mixed-to-positive reception. Lakshana N Palat of "India Today" wrote: "The little respite in this adventure-comedy is the pairing of Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit, who prove that they still have the same impeccable chemistry and partnership almost two decades later." "Total Dhamaal" emerged as a major commercial success at the box office, grossing more than worldwide, and ranks as the ninth highest-grossing Hindi film of the year. Dixit produced the Marathi Netflix-drama "15 August" under her production company RnM Moving Pictures. In an interview with Scroll.in, Dixit said, "The film is about the freedom to love, the freedom to choose your career and the freedom to die".
She next starred in Abhishek Varman's period drama "Kalank", featuring an ensemble cast including Sanjay Dutt, Sonakshi Sinha, Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan and Aditya Roy Kapur. Set in the 1940s prior to the partition of India, the film featured her as Bahaar Begum, the madam of a brothel. Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV wrote, "In the blinding glow of Dixit's presence as a nautch girl who can turn on the magic at will, the younger cast members pale somewhat in comparison. She lights up the screen as only she can, pushing the others to strive harder." It did not perform well at the box office; however, she gained a third nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Dixit made her singing debut with a single, "Candle", dedicating it to frontline workers fighting the Coronavirus. She will next produce "Panchak", a Marathi film under her company RnM Moving Pictures and will next star in Netflix's series "The Heroine", produced by Karan Johar.
Dixit has participated in several stage shows, concert tours and televised award ceremonies. In 1993, Dixit participated in Live 93' Bollywood Concert alongside Amitabh Bachchan and Mithun Chakraborty. Since the mid 1990s to early 2000s, she performed at the "Madhuri Dixit Live" concert in India, the Middle East and United States. In 2000, she performed at the Pepsi W2K Millennium Concert in Mumbai. Between July to August 2008, Dixit, and actors Abhishek Bachchan, Amitabh Bachchan, Preity Zinta, Ritesh Deshmukh and Aishwarya Rai starred in the "Unforgettable World Tour" stage production in a 40-day show staged in 11 cities across North America, Europe and the Caribbean.
In 2013, Dixit participated in the Access All Areas concert in Dubai with Shah Rukh Khan, Jacqueline Fernandez and Deepika Padukone. The same year, she joined the fourth instalment of "Temptation Reloaded" where she performed with Khan, Rani Mukerji, Fernandez and Meiyang Chang in Auckland, Perth, Sydney and Dubai; and in 2014 she performed in Malaysia with Khan, Mukerji and Arijit Singh. She also performed in SLAM! The Tour which was held in the US, Canada, and London. In 2015, Dixit participated in the show Fusion in Houston, along with Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha and Prabhu deva. In 2018, she performed at the inaugural ceremony of Men's Hockey World Cup.
She participated in the Hiru Golden Film Awards 2016 in Sri Lanka as a special guest along with Sunil Shetty, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Jackie Shroff, Sridevi and Karisma Kapoor.
In 2013, Dixit launched her own online dance academy "Dance With Madhuri", where the users get an opportunity to learn to dance various dance styles and have one-on-one lessons.
During her years in the film industry, Dixit has been actively involved in promoting children's education and the safety of women. She featured in a series of one-minute telespots on preventing AIDS for the Maharashtra State AIDS Control Society in 2000. In 2001, Dixit won on Kaun Banega Crorepati, a game show then in its first season on the air. She donated her winnings for the welfare of the victims of 2001 Gujarat earthquake and to an orphanage in Pune. She has supported various People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) campaigns in India.
In 2009, Dixit performed for NDTV Toyota Greenathon—India's first-ever nationwide campaign for saving the environment and creating awareness about environmental issues. NDTV organised India's first 24-hour live telethon, a fund-raising event that brings in people to donate money to support TERI's initiative—Lighting a Billion Lives which aims at providing solar power to villages without electricity.
On 3 February 2011, Dixit spent an evening with 75 orphanage kids of farmers at an ashram in Trimbakeshwar and participated in the birthdays of two children: Hrishikesh and Rani. "We artists are ready to help such children. People from the higher society should come forward and stand firmly behind them," she said on the occasion. Dixit is a Goodwill Ambassador and a patron for "Emeralds for Elephants" – a charity project for the conservation of Asian elephants and other endangered species. The project has been designed to create awareness and raise vital funds for the protection of the critically endangered Asian elephant. A collaborative project between the World Land Trust (a UK based nonprofit environmental organisation) and the Wildlife Trust of India that is creating protected wildlife corridors connecting National Parks and protected areas to others. Speaking about the issue she said: "Elephants are one of my favourite animals and I love them. So what we need to do today is to see how we can preserve our animals. I feel very strongly about this." Two years later, she made donations to the Uttarakhand flood relief.
Since 2014, Dixit began working with UNICEF to advocate the rights of children and prevent child labour and child trafficking. She participated in a fashion show organised by Lilavati hospital, to support the 'Save & Empower the Girl Child' initiative by the organisation. The same year, the Government of Madhya Pradesh appointed her as the brand ambassador for its Mamta Abhiyaan (maternal and child health) campaign. Dixit collaborated with Vogue for its Vogue Empower series on a short film on gender policing, 'Boys don't cry', directed by Vinil Mathew. She was appointed as the brand ambassador for the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign, by the Government of India in 2015, that aims to generate awareness and improve the efficiency of welfare services intended for girls. She lent her voice for narrating the story of one of the eight girls who featured in Girl Rising: Woh Padhegi, Woh Udegi, a film on the education and empowerment of girls. Dixit was appointed the brand ambassador and launched MAA (Mothers Absolute Affection), a flagship programme to ensure adequate awareness is generated on the benefits of breastfeeding.
Additionally, Dixit has made public appearances to support charities and causes. On 4 February 2012, Madhuri Dixit interacted with Cancer affected children on World Cancer Day which was organised by Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd at Juhu, Mumbai. In 2013, she launched Sanofi India's campaign on World Diabetes Day (WDD), that encourages people to take proactive steps to effectively prevent, manage and control diabetes. A year later, on 24 February 2014, she visited a school in Andheri, Mumbai to support the "Support My School" campaign. She participated in 'Set Beautiful Free'– an event by One Foundation to provide home, education, food and healthcare to the daughters of trafficking victims. In 2018, she attended a charity event by 'Nanhi Kali' NGO.
In 1985, Dixit made her television debut in the Rajshri Production's series "Paying Guest", in which she played Neena.
In 2002, Dixit hosted Sony Entertainment's matrimonial show "Kahi Na Kahi Koi Hai".
Dixit featured as a talent judge for four seasons of the dance reality show "Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa" alongside Remo D'Souza and Malaika Arora Khan for the fourth season and alongside Remo D'Souza and Karan Johar for the fifth, sixth and seventh seasons.
In 2011, she featured as an anchor to launch a new entertainment channel, Life OK. The same year, she hosted a competitive cooking game show, Food Food Maha Challenge along with Sanjeev Kapoor. In 2016, Dixit featured as one of the jury of "So You Think You Can Dance", an officially incensed version of the "So You Think You Can Dance" franchise, based on the original "American production" created by Dick Clark Productions. Dixit co-judged first and second seasons of Colors TV's "Dance Deewane", which gives an opportunity to contestants from three different generations.
In May–June 2015 the Tamil Nadu Consumer's Forum sent her notices for "false representation" in advertisements of Maggi, a noodle brand in which toxic levels of lead were found. She continued endorsing the safety of the product on Twitter, even when food regulators had already found more than 17 times the permissible limits of lead and the product was banned.
Dixit is regarded as one of the most popular and accomplished actresses of Indian cinema. Throughout the late 1980s, the 1990s and the early 2000s, Dixit was among the highest paid actresses in the Indian entertainment industry. In 2000, the Guinness World Records book featured her as the highest paid Indian actress. In 2003, Dixit won Zee and BBC polls of "Best Actress Ever". In 2012, Dixit was placed at the first position by NDTV in the listing of "The most popular Bollywood actresses of all time". The same year, she was featured by Yahoo.com at the first position as one of the ten most iconic beauties of Hindi cinema. In 2013, she was placed at the fourth position, behind Amitabh Bachchan, Dilip Kumar and Shah Rukh Khan and topped among female actors as the greatest Bollywood star in a UK poll celebrating 100 years of Indian cinema. The same year, in a national poll conducted by CNN-IBN on the occasion of the centenary of Indian cinema, Dixit was voted at the second position, behind "Sridevi", as "India's Greatest Actress in 100 Years". In 2017, Dixit topped an India Today poll as the most popular actress of Hindi cinema till date.
Dixit has a significant following in the South Asian diaspora. While analysing her career, Reuters published, "In her prime, Dixit was the undisputed queen of Bollywood, the world's largest film industry by audience size, and her popularity and fees rivaled even the biggest male stars." Filmfare wrote that, "In a world of megastar males, she balances the power equation in favour of the fairer sex. She's one actress who sold films. Who overshadowed her heroes. Madhuri Dixit's box-office power was indestructible." The New York Times called Dixit, "India's biggest female star". The Guardian noted, "Dixit's reign as Bollywood's biggest star began in the 80s. She was given top billing on several pictures, and was considered so bankable that directors often paired her with lesser-known - and younger - heroes." According to Encyclopædia Britannica, Dixit "gave mass
hysteria a whole new meaning, achieving near-cult status." Saibal Chatterjee of Outlook credited "Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!" as metamorphosing Dixit into a "subcontinental icon".
While discussing her performances, film critic Raja Sen noted: "Dixit’s acting chops have proven as impressive as her stellar screen-presence [...], her eyes sparkle with eagerness, and a seemingly effortless spontaneity colours her performances, infectious energy carrying her through moments of tremendous farce." Baradwaj Rangan labelled her as "the last of the all-in-one female stars who could do drama and comedy and dance." Firstpost called her, "one of the last superstars of Hindi cinema", and added, "the dexterity with which she could blend into the background in "Lajja" or not be overwhelming as Chandramukhi in "Devdas" and make "Dedh Ishqiya"'s Begum Para traverse finely between being desirable and diabolical, shows just how fine an artist she is." Rediff commented, "She shines in every role, blending with ease the vulnerability and the fierceness her character requires of her." In 2010, Filmfare Magazine included her performance from "Mrityudand" in its list of "80 Iconic Performances". Dixit is credited in the media for her versatility and achieving a "balance of critical acclaim and commercial success."
In addition to acting, she has been noted for her skills as a dancer. Kathak dancer Pandit Birju Maharaj, who choreographed Dixit in "Devdas", calls her "the best Bollywood dancer" due to her versatility. Saroj Khan, who has collaborated with her on numerous occasions, calls her a "choreographer's delight". Hindustan Times attributed her for giving a 'technical twist' to dance sequences in Hindi films. Raja Sen describes Dixit as "the industry's numero uno in every sense." Further he elaborates, "She is an exemplary dancer. From Kathak to Dhak Dhak, she's done it all and wowed us every step of the way." Dixit was the muse for Indian painter M. F. Husain. He got fascinated by Dixit's performance in "Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!"; watching the film 67 times, and booked an entire theatre to see her comeback "Aaja Nachle". He made a series of paintings of her, and in 2000 directed "Gaja Gamini" starring her, which was intended as a tribute to Dixit herself.
Dixit featured in Box Office India's "Top Actresses" list for ten consecutive years (1988–97). In 2001, Forbes placed her at fifth position in the list of "top five most powerful Indian film stars". In 2002 and 2014, Dixit featured in Rediff's annual "Top Bollywood actresses" listing. She has been featured frequently on other Rediff lists, including "Bollywood's Most Beautiful Actresses", "Bollywood's Best Actresses Ever" and "Top 10 Bollywood Actresses of all Time". "The Economic Times" featured her in the list of "33 women who made India proud" in 2010. In 1997, the Government of Andhra Pradesh honoured her with the "Kalabhinetri Award". In 2001, Dixit was awarded the National Citizens' Award for her work and contribution to Indian cinema. In 2008, the Government of India honoured her with the Padma Shri for her contribution to Indian Cinema. The Sathyabama University honoured her as the "Inspiring Icon of India" in 2015. An unauthorised biography of her named "Madhuri Dixit", written by professor Nandana Bose was released in 2019.
Dixit is frequently referred to as one of the most attractive Indian celebrities and has been described as a sex symbol. Her eyes, sex appeal and urban looks have been cited by the media as her distinctive features; her smile being identified as her trademark. She featured in The Times of India's list of 50 Beautiful Faces of cinema and Hindustan Times called her "a classic Indian beauty". Her look and performances have established her as a style icon. In 2007, 2013–16 and 2018, the UK magazine "Eastern Eye" ranked her as one of "World's Sexiest Asian Women".
Sangestar Tso lake in Arunachal Pradesh was renamed "Madhuri Lake" after her, where a song from "Koyla" was picturised. She has a star named after her in the Orion constellation. In 1997, a Zee TV television serial Mrs. Madhuri Dixit was named after her and in 2003, Ram Gopal Varma produced a feature film "Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon", which was dedicated to her. In March 2012, a wax figure of Dixit was put on display in London's Madame Tussaud's wax museum. In 2017, two other figures were displayed at Madame Tussaud's Museum in Singapore and Delhi. Every year since its inception in 2012, Dixit has featured on "Forbes India"s "Celebrity 100," a list based on the income and popularity of India's celebrities with the exception of 2017. In 2018, she was among the twenty Indians invited for the Oscar Academy's Class of 2018.
Following widespread media speculation over years on her personal life, Dixit married Shriram Madhav Nene, a cardiovascular surgeon from Los Angeles, California on 17 October 1999, in a traditional ceremony held at the residence of Dixit's elder brother in Southern California. Nene had never seen any of her films, and was unaware of her celebrity status. Dixit explained their relationship by saying, "It was very important that he didn't know me as an actress because then he would know me as a person first. When people have seen you as an actress, they have pre-conceived notions... None of it was there here with him. I found the right person, I wanted to get married and I did."
Following her marriage, Dixit relocated to Denver, Colorado, for over a decade. She moved back to Mumbai with her family in October 2011. Speaking about it, Dixit said, "I always love being here. I have grown up here in Mumbai so for me it is like coming back home. It was a different phase in my life, where I wanted to have a home, family, husband and children... everything that I had dreamt of." In 2018, Dixit along with her husband, founded the production company, RnM Moving Pictures.
On 17 March 2003, Dixit gave birth to a son, Arin. Two years later, on 8 March 2005, she gave birth to another son, Ryan. She described motherhood as "amazing" and added that her kids kept "the child in her alive".
Dixit has received six Filmfare Awards from seventeen nominations, including four Best Actress awards for "Dil" (1990), "Beta" (1992), "Hum Aapke Hain Kaun!" (1994) and "Dil To Pagal Hai" (1997), and a Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress for "Devdas" (2002). She earned a Filmfare Special Award for completing twenty-five years in the Indian film industry. In 2008, she was awarded Padma Shri, the fourth-highest Indian civilian award, by the Government of India for her contributions to the arts.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19852
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Mars Attacks
Mars Attacks is a science fiction-themed trading card series released in 1962 by Topps. The cards feature artwork by science fiction artists Wally Wood and Norman Saunders. The cards form a story arc, which tell of the invasion of Earth by cruel, hideous Martians, under the command of a corrupt Martian government who conceal the fact from the Martian populace that Mars is doomed to explode and therefore proposes a colonization of Earth to turn it into their new homeworld. The cards depict futuristic battle scenes and bizarre methods of Martian attack, torture and slaughter of humans, as well as various Earth nations being attacked. The story concludes with an expeditionary force of humans volunteering to embark on a counterattack on Mars, in which the Earth force attacks the Martians in their manner (bayoneting and bullets). This necessitates the Martians that are still on Mars to defend their homeworld. The Earth attack forces, after destroying the Martian cities and killing the Martians, depart just before Mars is destroyed in the predicted cataclysm, thus ensuring the peace and safety of Earth as the Martian race is seemingly doomed to extinction (but see "Adaptations and merchandising" below). Scholar Nathan Brownstone noted that "The "Mars Attacks" cards achieved their popularity at the very time when the Cuban Missile Crisis captured the headlines, the moment when Cold War came closest to become radioactively hot. That was when that a brutal zero sum game scenario - for Humanity to survive the Martians must die - established a solid niche in Americana popular culture" .
The cards proved popular with children, but depictions of explicit gore and implied sexual content caused an outcry, leading the company to halt production. The cards have since become collectors' items, with certain cards commanding over $3,500 at auction.
In the 1980s, Topps began developing merchandise based on the "Mars Attacks" storyline, including mini-comic books and card reprints. An expanded set of 100 cards called "Mars Attacks Archives" was issued in 1994 by Topps and spawned a second round of merchandising. Director Tim Burton released a film called "Mars Attacks!" in 1996 based on the series, spawning a third round of merchandising. In 2012, Topps released a 50th anniversary expanded set of 75 cards called "Mars Attacks Heritage", leading to a fourth round of merchandising that continued into 2017 with the release of a sequel series, "Mars Attacks: The Revenge!"
The "Mars Attacks" trading card series was created by Topps in 1962. Product developer Len Brown, inspired by Wally Wood's cover for EC Comics' "Weird Science" #16, pitched the idea to Woody Gelman. Gelman and Brown created the story—with Brown writing the copy—and created rough sketches. They enlisted Wood to flesh out the sketches and Bob Powell to finish them. Norman Saunders painted the 55-card set.
The cards, which sold for five cents per pack of five, were test marketed by Topps through the dummy corporation Bubbles, Inc. under the name "Attack from Space". Sales were sufficient to expand the marketing and the name was changed to "Mars Attacks". The cards sparked parental and community outrage over their graphic violence and implied sexuality. Topps responded initially by repainting 13 of the 55 cards to reduce the gore and sexuality. However, inquiries from a Connecticut district attorney caused Topps to halt production of the series altogether before the replacements could be printed.
In 1994, Topps re-released the cards as the expanded "Mars Attacks Archives", with the original 55 cards and 45 "New Visions" cards. The new cards are further divided into a #0 card, three subsets ("The Unpublished 11" (with 11 cards), "Mars Attacks: The Comics" (with 10 cards) and "Visions: New and Original" (a.k.a. "New Visions"; with 22 cards)) and one card called "Norm Saunders: A Self-Portrait". 21 artists collaborated on the new cards, including Zina Saunders, daughter of the original artist Norman Saunders. Topps Comics, in conjunction with the trading cards, issued a five-issue comic book miniseries based on the original 55 cards written by Keith Giffen and drawn by Charles Adlard. Topps Comics continued the story in an ongoing series that lasted seven issues, a one-shot special and three more miniseries, one of them a crossover with the Martians battling the Image Comics superhero the Savage Dragon and another one a crossover with the Martians battling other characters from the Image Comics universe. "Wizard" magazine and Topps Comics also published a #1/2 issue and an Ace Edition issue (#65).
In 1995, one year after the "Archives" series, Screamin' Productions and Topps released a tie-in set of eight "Mars Attacks" vinyl model kits with an accompanying series of eight new trading cards, each one inside one of the kits. Bonus items that could be acquired by sending in proof-of-purchase certificates from all eight of the kits were two new nearly identical bonus cards (one oversized with the "Mars Attacks" logo on it and one regular-sized without it) and a limited edition 9th model kit.
In 1996, Warner Bros. released Tim Burton's film "Mars Attacks!" In conjunction, two hardcover novels were released: "Mars Attacks: Martian Deathtrap" by Nathan Archer; and "Mars Attacks: War Dogs of the Golden Horde" by Ray W. Murrill. Each contained two new trading cards in the middle of each book (the paperback editions, however, did not have the trading cards in them). A paperback movie tie-in novelization by the film's screenwriter was also published. Trendmasters also produced a series of toy figures based on the film.
In 2012, to commemorate the franchise's 50th anniversary, Topps partnered with a variety of companies on comic books (via IDW Publishing), bobbleheads and vinyl dolls (Funko), action figures and plush toys (Mezco Toyz), costumes (Incogneato), statues and busts (Quarantine Studio), electronics skins (Gelaskins) and a commemorative hardcover book and 2013 calendar, both with nearly identical sets of four new trading cards (the only difference being that the book's cards had white borders on the front of the cards and the calendar's cards had green borders) (Abrams Books). Topps also re-released the original 55-card series again as the expanded "Mars Attacks Heritage", including two subsets ("Deleted Scenes" (with 10 cards) and "Guide to the New Universe" (with 15 cards)).
In 2013, Topps issued "Mars Attacks: Invasion", a reboot series of 95 trading cards featuring a new story ("Mars Attacks: Invasion" (cards #1-58, plus a #0 promo card from the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con)) with new artwork cards (divided into "Mars Invades IDW" (cards #59-77 and #91-92) and "Art of Mars Attacks" (cards #78-90 and #93-95)) and including four new subsets ("Mars Attacks: Early Missions" (with six cards), "Mars Attacks Masterpieces" (with five cards), "Join the Fight!" (with four cards) and "Anatomy of a Martian" (also with six cards)). This was the last "Mars Attacks" trading card series to be sold in retail stores as of this date; all other such series have been sold online ever since.
A second series of 81 trading cards, "Mars Attacks: Occupation", also featuring a second reboot series that picked up where "Mars Attacks: Invasion" left off ("Mars Attacks: Occupation" (cards #1-45) with new artwork cards (divided into "Art of Mars Attacks" (cards #46-63), "Factions" (cards #64-72), "Occupation Profiles" (cards #73-78) and "The Kickstarter Video" (cards #79-81)) and including six new subsets ("Mars Attacks Superstars", Mars Attacks: Then and Now!", "Mars Attacks All-Star Art" and "Dinosaurs Attack! vs. Mars Attacks" (each with nine cards (the last one of which was also available as a foil card set)), "Attacky Packages" (with 13 cards; the last three cards were titled "Attacky Packages Old School" (like "Dinosaurs Attack! vs. Mars Attacks", this one, too, was also available as a foil card set)) and "Mars Attacks/Judge Dredd" (with 18 cards)) was funded by Topps on Kickstarter in 2015 and released in 2016.
On October 27, 2016, "Day 10" of "13 Days of ERMA-Ween", an annual series of comic strips from the Brandon J. Santiago webcomic "Erma", focuses on the Martians of the "Mars Attacks" franchise, showing Erma Williams, the series' titular character, wearing a nurse's cap and preparing to dissect a living Martian with a buzz saw.
In 2017, to commemorate the franchise's 55th anniversary, Topps released a sequel series to the original 1962 55-card series called "Mars Attacks: The Revenge!", which takes place five years after the events in the original series, and chronicles a second invasion. It contains 110 cards-the story itself (cards #1-55) and rough pencil art for the story cards (cards #P-1-P-55). No subsets were made for this series. It was sold as a complete boxed set containing only the unwrapped 110 cards.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=19855
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